#ineffable soulmates

[inhonoredglory]

Aziraphale’s Choice, the Job Connection, and Michael Sheen’s Morality

Update: Michael Sheen liked this post on Twitter, so I'm fairly certain there is a lot of validity to it.

I’ve had time to process Aziraphale’s choice at the end of Season 2. And I think only blaming the religious trauma misses something important in Aziraphale’s character. I think what happened was also Aziraphale’s own conscious choice––as a growth from his trauma, in fact. Hear me out.

Since November 2022 I’ve been haunted by something Michael Sheen said at the MCM London Comic Con. At the Q&A, someone asked him about which fantasy creature he enjoyed playing most and Michael (bless him, truly) veered on a tangent about angels and goodness and how, specifically,

We as a society tend to sort of undervalue goodness. It’s sort of seen as sort of somehow weak and a bit nimby and “oh it’s nice.” And I think to be good takes enormous reserves of courage and stamina. I mean, you have to look the dark in the face to be truly good and to be truly of the light…. The idea that goodness is somehow lesser and less interesting and not as kind of muscular and as passionate and as fierce as evil somehow and darkness, I think is nonsense. The idea of being able to portray an angel, a being of love. I love seeing the things people have put online about angels being ferocious creatures, and I love that. I think that’s a really good representation of what goodness can be, what it should be, I suppose.

I was looking forward to BAMF!Aziraphale all season long, and I think that’s what we got in the end. Remember Neil said that the Job minisode was important for Aziraphale’s story. Remember how Aziraphale sat on that rock and reconciled to himself that he MUST go to Hell, because he lied and thwarted the will of God. He believed that––truly, honestly, with the faith of a child, but the bravery of a soldier.

Aziraphale, a being of love with more goodness than all of Heaven combined, believed he needed to walk through the Gates of Hell because it was the Right Thing to do. (Like Job, he didn’t understand his sin but believed he needed to sacrifice his happiness to do the Right Thing.)

That’s why we saw Aziraphale as a soldier this season: the bookshop battle, the halo. But yes, the ending as well.

Because Aziraphale never wanted to go to Heaven, and he never wanted to go there without Crowley.

But it was Crowley who taught him that he could, even SHOULD, act when his moral heart told him something was wrong. While Crowley was willing to run away and let the world burn, it was Aziraphale (in that bandstand at the end of the world) who stood his ground and said No. We can make a difference. We can save everyone.

And Aziraphale knew he could not give up the ace up his sleeve (his position as an angel) to talk to God and make them see the truth in his heart.

I was messed up by Ineffable Bureaucracy (Boxfly) getting their happy ending when our Ineffable Husbands didn’t, but I see now that them running away served to prove something to Aziraphale. (And I am fully convinced that Gabriel and Beelzebub saw the example of the Ineffables at the Not-pocalypse and took inspiration from them for choosing to ditch their respective sides)

But my point is that Aziraphale saw them, and in some ways, they looked like him and Crowley. And he saw how Gabriel, the biggest bully in Heaven, was also like him in a way (a being capable of love) and also just a child when he wasn’t influenced by the poison of Heaven. Muriel, too, wasn’t a bad person. The Metatron also seemed to have grown more flexible with his morality (from Aziraphale's perspective). Like Earth, Heaven was shades of (light?) gray.

Aziraphale is too good an angel not to believe in hope. Or forgiveness (something he’s very good at it).

Aziraphale has been scarred by Heaven all his life. But with the cracks in Heaven’s armor (cracks he and Crowley helped create), Aziraphale is seeing something else. A chance to change them. They did terrible things to him, but he is better than them, and because of Crowley, he feels ready to face them.

(Will it work? Can Heaven change, institutionally? Probably not, but I can't blame Aziraphale for trying.)

At the cafe, the Metatron said something big was coming in the Great Plan. Aziraphale knows how trapped he had felt when he didn’t have God’s ear the first time something huge happened in the Big Plan. He can’t take a chance again to risk the world by not having a foot in the door of Heaven. That’s why we saw individual human deaths (or the threat of death) so much more this season: Elspeth, Wee Morag, Job’s children, the 1940s magician. Aziraphale almost killed a child when he couldn’t get through to God, and he’s not going through that again.

“We could make a difference.” We could save everyone.

Remember what Michael Sheen said about courage and doing good––and having to “look the dark in the face to be truly good.” That’s what happened when Aziraphale was willing to go to Hell for his actions. That’s what happened when he decided he had to go to Heaven, where he had been abused and belittled and made to feel small. He decided to willingly go into the Lion’s Den, to face his abusers and his anxiety, to make them better so that they would not try to destroy the world again.

Him, just one angel. He needed Crowley to be there with him, to help him be brave, to ask the questions that Heaven needed to hear, to tell them God was wrong. Crowley is the inspiration that drives Aziraphale’s change, Crowley is the engine that fuels Aziraphale’s courage.

But then Crowley tells him that going to Heaven is stupid. That they don’t need Heaven. And he’s right. Aziraphale knows he’s right.

Aziraphale doesn’t need Heaven; Heaven needs him. They just don’t know how much they need him, or how much humanity needs him there, too. (If everyone who ran for office was corrupt, how can the system change?)

Terry Pratchett (in the Discworld book, Small Gods) is scathing of God, organized religion, and the corrupt people religion empowers, but he is sympathetic to the individual who has real, pure faith and a good heart. In fact, the everyman protagonist of Small Gods is a better person than the god he serves, and in the end, he ends up changing the church to be better, more open-minded, and more humanist than god could ever do alone.

Aziraphale is willing to go to the darkest places to do the Right Thing, and Heaven is no exception. When Crowley says that Heaven is toxic, that’s exactly why Aziraphale knows he needs to go there. “You’re exactly is different from my exactly.”

____

In the aftermath of Trump's election in the US, Brexit happened in 2018. Michael Sheen felt compelled to figure out what was going on in his country after this shock. But he was living in Los Angeles with Sarah Silverman at the time, and she also wanted to become more politically active in the US.

Sheen: “I felt a responsibility to do something, but it [meant] coming back [to Britain] – which was difficult for us, because we were very important to each other. But we both acknowledge that each of us had to do what we needed to do.” In the end, they split up and Michael moved back to the UK.

Sometimes doing the Right Thing means sacrificing your own happiness. Sometimes it means going to Hell. Sometimes it means going to Heaven. Sometimes it means losing a relationship.

And that’s why what happened in the end was so difficult for Aziraphale. Because he loves Crowley desperately. He wants to be together. He wanted that kiss for thousands of years. He knows that taking command of Heaven means they would never again have to bow to the demands of a God they couldn’t understand, or run from a Hell who still came after them. They could change the rules of the game.

And he’s still going to do that. But it hurts him that he has to do that alone.

#good omens #good omens 2 #ineffable husbands #it's kinda like capt america: civil war #with Azi as Tony Stark: traumatized and trying to do the right thing #and Crowley being Steve Rogers: fuck the establishment let's go rogue #gos2spoilers #good omens meta #good omens 2 meta #go s2 #michael sheen #go s2 meta #go meta #*mine #*mymeta #ineffables husbands #ineffable soulmates #*mybest

[clairedelune-13]

I’m sorry, but I’m genuinely obsessed with this part of the outtakes, cuz when David finally gets Michael to break, he adopts this adorable expression… I can’t...

David, you little angel, you won this round 😂

#they are so cute ima go throw up #in a good way? #🤣🤣🤣 #david tennant #cut-price mike yarwood michael sheen #staged #outtakes #ineffable soulmates

[embracing-the-ineffable]

Can we just admire, for a moment, how absolutely gorgeous this shot from Good Omens season 1 is?

That's all. That's the post. ❤️

#good omens #crowley x aziraphale #aziraphale x crowley #aziracrow #aziraphale and crowley #ineffable partners #ineffable soulmates #ineffable husbands #crowley #aziraphale #love #good omens season 1 #beautiful lighting #renew good omens

[sebthesmoll]

Creation of a star.

#my art #good omens #good omens fanart #good omens season two #good omens 2 #good omens fandom #ineffable husbands #ineffable art #ineffable spouses #ineffable soulmates #crowley good omens #crowley #aziraphale good omens #aziraphale #artists on tumblr #sketch illustration #illustration #space #star #art #digital arwork #digital art #digital illustration #sebthesmoll #sebthesmol art

[dee-morris]

If They Get Any Cuter I May Discorporate

After the fight over Jim, Crowley storms out, catches some quick voltage, and sits in his car a while. He takes off his sunglasses and hangs them on the rear view mirror, and his eyes are so tired and sad, you can fucking TELL he already regrets his reaction.

Aside from getting a mouthful of flies, I'm pretty sure he's relieved when Beelzebub snatches him off the street and hauls his ass to hell for some quick mild threatening with erasure from existence. "I have an excuse to change my mind and go back that doesn't make me look like a spineless simp! Best day ever!"

Aziraphale hears him coming and really quick gets up from the chair where he was staring at the wall with a cup of tea in his hands that he probably never even sipped out of. Sat down at his desk and pretended like he'd been working the whole time and never noticed Crowley was gone.

I love them so fucking much, your honor.

#good omens #aziraphale #crowley #ineffable husbands #aziracrow #good omens 2 #good omens season 2 #aziraphale my beloved #crowley x arizaphale #crowley good omens #ineffable dumbasses #ineffable soulmates

[crowjodojocasahouse]

runs up to you panting and frothing at the mouth and hands you this

#please don't let this flop #this is so funny #good omens #crowley #good omens 2 #neil gaiman #aziraphale #crowley x aziraphale #good omens prime #ineffable husbands #aziraphale x crowley #go2 #aziracrow #ineffable spouses #ineffable soulmates #every #good omens tv #so obsessed with how this is incomprehensible if you're not in the fandom #i made this

[creapysummer]

did i already make a season 3 bingo? yes. but i have reasons.

#i know that im gonna get a new hyperfixation before season 3 comes out #so im making this in advance #so if someone can reblog this once season 3 is out that would be fun #good omens #good omens bingo #good omens season 3 #good omens theory #ineffable husbands #ineffable soulmates #ineffable spouses #ineffable fandom #good omens fandom #crowley good omens #crowley #aziraphale good omens #azirpahale

[samthegremlin]

They thought their feeling was friendship because they didnt have any other real friend and had never been in love before

#ineffable lovers #good omens spoilers #good omens 2 #good omens #good ineffable omens #goodomensgifs #ineffable soulmates #ineffable spouses #ineffable idiots #inefabble husbands #ineffable boyfriends #ineffable husbands #ineffable whatever this fucking show broke my heart i need a s3

[procrastiel]

I like to see Aziraphale and Crowley make love, but that’s because I’m human and this is the closest my little mind can get to the idea of what a divine union looks like.

I can’t quite imagine what it must be like to have your angelic bodies intertwine and flow into each other, but if I could, I’d imagine them doing that just as much.

#am I making any sense #it’s quite possible that I’ve lost the plot a while ago #Aziraphale #Crowley #ineffable lovers #good omens #aziracrow #aziraphale crowley kiss #aziraphale x crowley #crowley loves aziraphale #aziraphale loves crowley #crowzi #angel and demon #the concept of love #divine union #wings #i have things to say #ineffable husbands #ineffable spouses #ineffable soulmates

[oceanwithinsblog]

guys i've just been struck by a haunting query

y'know how i'm rewatching good omens for the nth time and i'm reaching the final episode, but something just came up to my mind and i can find no satisfactory answer...

in s2 ep1 (i believe) azi and crowley wonderfully perform half a miracle each, but obviously heaven notices and sends its best unit to check on what's happening in the bookshop. personally, i've always thought that said joint miracle was /that/ powerful because the metatron had already appointed aziraphale as gabriel's substitute archangel somehow (in my view, the metatron's offer to aziraphale at the end of s2 is just a pure formality as he had already made up his mind wayyyyyyy before going down on earth and meeting up with azi themselves). therefore their half a miracle was much stronger than crowley's.

here's where trouble comes. ever since i've rewatched that scene with my brother (who is doing an incredible job at keeping up with all sorts of gomens stuff on his first watch), i've been wondering if that's really what happened there. what is the actual reason why the combined miracle halves are so distinctive, fierce and recognisable?

my brother suggested the idea that aziraphale and crowley have little to do with it - the only reason why the miracle resonates so clearly and strongly is because they are performing it on gabriel (while holding both his hands). i guess he means that gabriel still has some of his powers left (as throughout the show he gets part of his memory back at random times and recites lines from the bible + he hasn't actually forgotten everything about himself) or that he is a very special entity of interest for heaven therefore whenever someone interacts with him there's a sort of alarm going off (?).

another idea that i got recently is, quite honestly, a very romantic one as aziracrow are both involved in doing a good deed. since love is the strongest power ever, in any universe and reality, and these two idiots' feelings are clearly mutual (without them knowing), maybe the miracle turned out to be so huge and mighty because what they're feeling for each other influenced the miracle itself and sort of multiplied its efficiency? i mean, i'd make sense somehow as later on we find out that another power couple is involved (gabriel and beelzebub). aziracrow's love for each other sort of mirrors beelzebub and gabriel's, i guess? but both their relationships are supposed to be a secret since heaven and hell should not ever collaborate (and i'm not even mentioning dating here).

what do you think? what is, in your opinion, the reason why the joint miracle halves worked but got inevitably noticed by heaven?

(it could also be that the answer has been given in the show and i'm too big of an idiot to find it out so please put up with my me. i'm just a dumbass in adoration of two more ineffable dumbasses.)

#good omens #aziraphale #crowley #aziracrow #gabriel #beelzebub #gabriel x beelzebub #aziraphale x crowley #ineffable just ineffable #ineffable soulmates #ineffable partners #ineffable divorce #ineffable dumbasses #miracle #jimbriel #jim short for james short for gabriel

[inhonoredglory]

Good Omens s2 Ending Take, Book Perspective

Remember @neil-gaiman said Good Omens s3 is the plot he & Terry imagined for the book sequel to Good Omens (said many times but reiterated here). Season 2 literally exists to explain WHY Aziraphale & Crowley love each other so much because Season 3 was ALWAYS going to have them separated.

I can see now that the Second Coming plot was SUPPOSED to happen with Aziraphale taking over from Gabriel. (Imagine a Discord-style book answering the question, What if a bastard angel was in charge of The System?). Neil had to work the love story part INTO this existing plotline.

Cuz in book!GO, the ineffable husbands aren't as intense a love story. They're very low-key. They could spend ages apart and not have as much angst as they do in show universe. Book!Aziraphale is NOT as traumatized as show!Aziraphale.

Good Omens book 2 could have just started out with Aziraphale in heaven without as much emotional explanation for why they're apart, cuz the husbands weren't SO co-dependent as they are in the show.

Gaiman knew that show!Gomens needed MORE development/explanation of why we would still believe they're in love once we see they're apart for much of Season 3.

So Gaiman heightened the aspects the show did really well: the love story, religious trauma, tenuous nature of Aziraphale & Crowley's existence, the actively manipulative nature of Heaven, Aziraphale's need for doing good and saving the world from Heaven's incessant need for war (the Heaven and Hell vs the Earth threat Crowley talked about in Season 1).

This season is part of a bigger unified plotline that includes the Second Coming AND the South Downs.

SEASON 2 IS THE LOW POINT OF THAT STORY

Good Omens s2 is making way for s3. The endgame has been and always will be Aziraphale and Crowley settling down in the South Downs. We just need to get thru the low point and the drama to get there

#good omens #ineffable husbands #good omens 2 #good omens spoilers #good omens 2 spoilers #gos2spoilers #go meta #go s2 meta #good omens meta #ineffable soulmates #*mine #*mymeta #neil gaiman

[clairedelune-13]

Just for clarification’s sake:

I DO NOT seriously ship David and Michael.

I already fell down the Cockles rabbit hole, and managed to extract myself somewhat from that one, even if spare threads remain. Cuz, like:

That’s just a matter of pure perception based off what’s seen at cons and what they volunteer. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I don’t ship Cockles. I just perceive it.

It’s a Dumpster for a reason. 🤣

But not David and Michael. I genuinely just love their friendship, and I refuse to speculate about their private lives.

No judgement to those that do. This is just me and my stance. And I do not seriously ship them.

Their friendship and genuine love is beautiful and the absence of toxic masculinity is rare and refreshing. 💕

#david tennant #michael sheen #cockles #good omens #beautiful friendship #ineffable soulmates

[embracing-the-ineffable]

Hunting for Clues-with-a-capital-C, a meta of Good Omens metas, and GO fun!

*I'm adding to this list as I find new and interesting Clues and theories!

*This post version is dated 21 Apr 2024; the current version is pinned to my profile.

* I maxed out Tumblr's link limit! Here's the Google doc (which is due to be updated SOON with lots of posts I've reshared in the last few months...) with all the Clues, links, and metas I've collected from all over the fandom.

Below, you'll find a list of my original posts, most of which are filled with fact-finding, Clue-hunting screenshots that will probably leave you with more questions than answers! Several of these posts are also presented in partnership with the Ineffable Detective Agency:

Fanfiction:

From the GOMM holiday exchange: Cocoa and Fairy Lights, How to Fight Your Chemistry and Lose

GOMM 2024: Orbiting a Memory featuring a gorgeous illustration by @altonthebard

Fan Fiction Friday: The Universe Might Answer: Broken Moonlight

From the GO Song & Poetry Exchange: The Ineffable Dance

Good Omens Day of ✨Dance✨:

Learn all about my GO "Day of Dance" and get a link to all the fandom art I shared, here!

Time:

Gabriel's Memory Returns:

Plus, hidden audio in the memory tunnels?

The Appearing Sign:

Edinburgh and the Briefcase, presented by the Ineffable Detective Agency

The Bentley:

Crowley, Aziraphale, and the Statue:

Crowley's sideburns:

Crowley's sideburns aren't even consistent in the promo photos.

Extras Behaving Strangely:

Hawaiian Shirt/Pub Table Guy

Marking the Columns

The Demon in an Orange Hoodie

More Assorted Discontinuities:

When does Mr Arnold's shop arrive? After season 1, except Neil says it was in the 1970s

The disappearing textiles storefront

Season 1: First Wombat in Space (also, Bentley bullet hole decals)

The Clock and Other Furnishings:

The circular bookshop rug CHANGES?!

The Good Omens bookshop furniture changes between s1 and s2 (but NOT after Adam reboots reality!)

The Bookshop/Hospital Sink

The Opening Title Sequence:

The S2 Opening Title Sequence: analysis

Other Speculation and Questions:

On Neil's Tumblr asks, Staying Skeptical, and Gravity Falls

Finding hope for s3 and perspective for s2 in Neil's s1 podcast with David Tennant

The BTS parking ticket translation

Parallels with Nightmare in Silver (Doctor Who written by Neil) - multiple Crowleys?

Has Aziraphale been meeting with Floating Head Metatron throughout s2?

Would even vulnerable, heartbroken Crowley try to protect Aziraphale at all costs? A possible hidden transfer in the kiss.

I have questions about Nina and ESPECIALLY about Maggie...

Don't pay the guy with the blue glasses, he doesn't work here!

If you enjoyed my research, stay tuned for future posts, and take a look at my Google doc for even more Clues and metas from all over the fandom!

Some closing bits of encouragement:

A: "You just said it was the only way to prevent something terrible happening!" G: "Really? What?!" A: "I don't know!" G: "Well then, I expect it will be fine. Most things are fine in the end."

Neil: "Tell him that it will all be all right in the end, and that we are not yet at the end."

#good omens meta #clue with a capital c #good omens clue #ineffable discontinuity #good omens analysis #renew good omens #good omens aziraphale #crowley good omens #go meta #good omens #crowley #aziraphale #ineffable partners #ineffable soulmates #good omens bentley #Crowley's sideburns #ineffable mystery #Bentley transformation #Ineffable Detective Agency #good omens clues #good omens edinburgh #aziraphale's briefcase #good omens timeline #misdirection #miscommunication #memory #the metatron #saraqael #good omens gabriel #muriel good omens

[phantomram-b00]

Sometimes I’ll be fine. Then I remember Aziraphale accidentally Agnes Nutter’ed himself and predicted the very thing he threaten Crowley at the airbase.

“Come up with something or….Or I’ll never talk to you again”

And then- and then- and then—

#like I know it was a different situation but the fact they aren’t going to be talking in season 3 #I love aziraphale but like whyyyyy why must my brain do this to me 🥲🥲🥲 #good omens #good omens 2 #good omens analysis #good omens fandom #agnes nutter #Agnes might strangely be proud about this but I feel would be just as devastated as the rest of us #Honeslty me too Aziraphale I too accidentally predict things correctly 🥲🥲 thanks a lot #ineffable husbands #aziraphale #crowley #aziracrow #good omens season 2 #ineffable idiots #ineffable soulmates #ineffable dumbasses #anthony j crowley #Crowley worst fears became true and that is beyond heartbreaking

[thatineffablewitch]

Can we talk about how Aziraphale has managed to maintain his softness in such a toxic situation? Heaven chides him for it (e.g.: every interaction with Gabriel pre-Jim). Heaven is so sterile, so cold and calculating and corporate. It’s so easy to break down in an environment like that, to think “I care too much” while there’s nothing you can do to change the nature of the system, and eventually you just… give in and stop caring. But after over 6,000 years (and apparently even LONGER than that?!), Aziraphale didn’t give in. 

Aziraphale continues to be excited by humanity, to enjoy and indulge in music, food, books, dance, drinks, classes (like French and magic); all things Heaven would disapprove of. And what’s more, Crowley helped him do that. Crowley introduced Aziraphale to one of his greatest joys in life: food. Crowley gave Aziraphale encouragement with his magic act, reassuring him that he’s a professional. Any unkind remarks Crowley makes aren’t actually malicious, and Aziraphale knows that. Crowley tells Aziraphale, “You can’t leave this bookshop.” When Heaven was starting to break Aziraphale down in the Job episode, Crowley’s kindness to the kids and goats gave him a reason to hope. 

Crowley helps Aziraphale maintain his softness, his goodness, against the harshness of Heaven, and I’m curious what’s going to happen when he’s alone in Heaven with no escape from all the heartless wankers and no Crowley to ground him. 

#Is Aziraphale going to fall? #Is he going to lose some softness for self-preservation? #Is he going to just be a big ole anxious mess? #a little bit of everything? #idk #but I’m excited to find out #aziraphale good omens #Aziraphale meta #good omens meta #good omens fandom #ineffable soulmates #aziraphale loves crowley #crowley loves aziraphale #my post

[ineffablyyours]

What if Aziraphale knew Crowley before the Fall? What if in Heaven, the two of them were inseparable, never leaving each other's side?

But Crowley wanted more. He wanted to create, to know God's Plan. And Heaven could not allow it. So he fell, and as punishment Heaven made Aziraphale forget him... Eons of memories gone in a day.

The excommunication process proceeded without objection. And Crowley was damned to remember every second he'd loved the man that was now a stranger.

Crowley wept, but not for himself. He wept for what they had lost. One day without Aziraphale would hurt more than an eternity in Hell.

Slowly but surely, Crowley grew used to damnation. But he was never far away from his angel. He looked after Aziraphale, longing for what they once had, but still he kept his distance, ashamed of what he'd become.

No one could love a demon. Not even Aziraphale.

Centuries came and went, along with all the qualities that Crowley believed had once made him holy. He rebranded, even changing his name, and tried to forget all that came before. But he couldn't. He didn't want to.

There came a time that a snake was stationed in Eden, as was a certain Angel of the Eastern Gate. After a hard day's work of tempting, the snake spotted the angel's solitary form at the crest of the wall, against the backdrop of the coming storm. The snake knew this was his one chance to salvage something from their past lives. So he slithered up the stone steps and introduced himself as Crowley.

Aziraphale hadn't recognized him, of course, but Crowley was received with more warmth than he would have expected. The angel didn't turn him away or cast him out like the rest of his kind. He treated him with respect.

Crowley fell for the second time that day. He hadn't thought his love for the angel could grow any deeper. But it had.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

These little clandestine meetings continued throughout the ages, with Crowley hoping against hope that something in his face or in his voice would trigger a memory of a forgotten time. But it never did.

Crowley refused to give up hope, for even a blind man could see that their love was alive. All it would take is one spark to rekindle the flame, one breath to fan the flames of passion lying dormant just below the surface.

There would never be another angel like Aziraphale. And some things were worth waiting an eternity for. So Crowley gave Aziraphale the time and space he needed to think it over, trusting that in the end, their love would outlast even an angel's faith.

#good omens #gomens #aziraphale #crowley #good omens thoughts #good omens headcanons #good omens headcanon #aziracrow #aziracrow angst #aziracrow headcanon #ineffable husbands #ineffable soulmates