#s2 meta

[thesherrinfordfacility]

i will never be over how disappointed aziraphale looks when he has a box full of plants immediately shoved in his face, and when crowley has no hesitation in offloading them all back into his car

the split second he takes in the first one to realise that crowley practically had his face pressed against the window, plants waiting at the front door, ready to get them - and himself - out of there. and all jokes of oogling his arse aside, the sudden, instant, reflexive, tight, forced smile when crowley looks at him whilst getting them inside the bentley.

i've ummed and erred over whether aziraphale knew about crowley living out of his car, but no - there is no way he didn't know. he absolutely knew. aziraphale loves trains - he could, and probably would, have taken one - but this is an excuse to get crowley into the shop and stay there. when we land on the shot of him behind the wheel, he looks so happy. not only has crowley accepted for him to drive it, a major show of trust and partnership, but almost like, following the "we both get plenty of use out of it, don't we?" line, he is so confident that he's finally secure in the knowledge that he's given crowley a home, and that home is where it's always been, where he's always belonged - with him.

#when these two berks finally stop trying to communicate in riddles and codes and gestures its going to seem so ooc #do they know how to do anything else. truly #good omens #s2 meta

[schattenhonig]

Something has been rummaging around in my brain, maybe it'll go away when I put it into words... I have no idea if this all has been pointed out before.

Good Omens S2 felt wrong from the first minute on. Not wrong as in bad, badly written or wrong wrong, just. Off. People who died in S1 are alive again, completely unaware of what happened to them and who they were before Armageddon't, like Maggie and Nina. Yes, it could be a coincidence that they were recast, and it could be because they are brilliant actresses, I completely agree. But I get a feeling that even if this was done without any specific intention, it must have felt right to Mr. Gaiman and the great people working on the show.

Plus, Gabriel-as-Jim says a line that stuck with me:

Gabriel: I’m me. I just don’t know who ‘me’ is. Aziraphale: I see. Gabriel: But you know me. You recognize me. Aziraphale: Well, I know someone who looks like you. Gabriel: That’s probably me then. I think that’s one of the main ways you can tell.

I don't think this is a coincidence. And the fact that neither Crowley nor Aziraphale recognize Nina and Maggie as people they have met before Armageddon't, makes it all the more eerie.

I think this whole memory wipe business is more important than we think; and this is going to be more meta now, but bear with me; because who needs a book of life when all the memories of a person and their own memory are gone? If there's not a trace of a memory left about you, did you ever exist in the first place? The answer is yes! Because you made an impact on life itself around you that is too complicated to be erased. Maggie and Nina brought about Armageddon't the way it happened because of the baby swap gone wrong. They might not remember it, nobody else was there and able to remember it, but it happened. And it changed the course of history.

But (here it is, you knew it was coming) if no one remembers it, you could tell them anything had happened. If you are the only one who remembers, you can tell your own version of the story, and the others will believe you. They have no other choice, they don't even know that there has been a choice, another version of this.

S2 boils down to this for me: erasing somebody with the book of life, as if they had never existed is way too complicated and dangerous because you couldn't possibly foresee what other parts of the story you want to tell would be changed. I don't think that is a risk Heaven or the Metatron would take. It wouldn't fit with Heaven being control freaks.

But erasing memories until only your desired version of the story is left... That's power. That's foreseeable, and it's controllable. And Heaven would totally abuse this power.

#good omens #good omens meta #s2 meta #good omens s2 meta #knowledge is power #book of life #is just a story we told the cherubs to frighten them #but it doesn't matter because it's not the real threat here #heaven is terrible #at least in the good omens universe

[o-wild-west-wind]

ofmd is like not comedy as in sitcom but comedy as in shakespearean where it’s psychological trauma and conflicts of violence but with dick jokes and the promise of marriage in the end

#girl help I’m thinking about genre again #this show has the part of me that was an English major for one semester in a chokehold #has anyone done this yet #ofmd #ofmd season 2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd spoilers #our flag means death #ofmd meta

[snek-eyes]

The fact that Aziraphale emerges from this flashback

Makes this face

and then with a ginormous gap on the right side of the screen, proceeds to be like "I must call Crowley right now immediately."

#I believe that Aziraphale in s2 is just as worried as Crowley is #he's just shoving it as far as possible under his little hat #good omens 2 #v watches good omens #Aziraphale #I Know Where I'm Going #The Resurrectionists #i am this close to analyzing the screen composition during their phonecall because it's. interesting. #started thinking about this scene when they mentioned changing the weather based on Aziraphale's mood #good omens meta #more in the notes

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

"killing off izzy after he went through all this growth and finally got to be happy means all that healing was for nothing"

goddamn that is a bleak way to look at life. we all die, man. healing is still worth the effort.

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd season 2 #ofmd s2 #ofmd 2 #izzy hands #dizzy izzy #israel hands #s2e08 #ofmd meta #<-eh #meta #txt #mine #og #the izcourse

[ulgapodatkowa]

I have so many thoughts but I at least want to address the "for the new unicorn" note. because first of all it's so incredibly gratifying for izzy to finally be accepted into a community. it was shown before that the crew cares for him in some way but it was the first time he really saw that. that he isn't useless and alone, that he still has a place on the ship. even more so the crew WANTS HIM to be on the ship. and also that they want him to embrace his disability which doesn't make them think any less of him.

but also the choice of words. because inherently it rings queer, unicorn as a symbol of queerness. and even if it may have a negative sound when you use it differently here it is extremely positive. izzy is not only accepted to the crew, he's also accepted to the queer community, to the family. the unicorn on the revenge was also the one that was leading the ship, so one can argue that they want him to take that role in their dynamic.

and you can see that he does so immediately. he puts himself together and starts helping the crew. he's still bitchy but no longer violent and cruel. he helps stede and lucius immensely because that is what he does now. he's part of the family. twat.

#ofmd #also don't talk to me about the shark or the cigarette scenes. i need 3-5 business days to recover #our flag means death #izzy hands #once again feral bc of con o'neill's acting choices #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd spoilers #ofmd meta

[lightbluetown]

i just love that ed asked for stede to stop

i love that stede was finally able to tell ed that their first kiss happened too fast and that he panicked. i love that when they kissed again, when ed leaned in for a quick peck but stede got passionate, ed was able to break the kiss and say "hey man, let's take this slow". i love that stede, of course, immediately stopped. i love that it didn't feel weird and they kept playing with each other's fingers and talking about their day

that was the most healthy, natural, realistic kiss i've seen. it wasn't romanticized for tv, it wasn't forced to be something it didn't have to be. it happened under a moon that wasn't full, on the deck of a messy ship, after ed complimented a piece of fine clothing that had lost most of its charm. it was as awkward as it was graceful

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd s2 spoilers #blackbonnet #gentlebeard #stede bonnet #edward teach #ofmd meta #i'm quite literally eating my windows #🏴‍☠️

[edscuntyeyeshadow]

thinking about how ofmd took blackbeard, a historical (almost mythical) figure that has pretty much always been depicted in media as a super hypermasculine white cishet man, and turned him into a gay man of color who wears crop tops and silk gowns, paints his nails and pines for his boyfriend

#ofmd #our flag means death #edward teach #ofmd s2 #ofmd season 2 #ed teach #blackbeard #our flag means gay #gay pirates #taika waititi #gentlebeard #blackbonnet #ofmd meta #loving edward teach hours #my posts

[thetardigrape]

I wanna take a minute to talk about the Looks of the entire cast of OFMD S2.

I think we're all pretty familiar with the male gaze. Lots of skin, tits and ass, that sort of thing.

The female gaze has been debated, but it looks something like a sexy college professor or himbo househusband.

What OFMD S2 absolutely nails is the queer gaze.

Look at this man.

An absolutely beautiful man. Who wears crop tops and leather pants. Long hair up in a messy bun. He's wearing eyeliner. And pearls.

And here.

Drawn on facial hair. Spaulders. Bracers. Fishnet sleeves. A MOTHERFUCKING MULLET.

These badasses.

The teeth and chains. SO MUCH MAKEUP. Big fancy coat with nothing underneath. Glam met goth and fucked out these looks.

And THE SWEDE!

Cropped jacket. Ponytail. Asymmetrical button fly. Decorative chains (again).

All of this screams queer. If I saw any of these people in a bar I'd be like "Yep, one of us." The gender fuckery of it all. The feminine and the masculine all thrown in together in perfect combinations. Decoration for its own sake. Jewelry and flashy adornment and gorgeous peacockery.

And we love it. The fandom is going absolutely feral over these looks, these actors, as we very well should. There is not a single member of this cast who has not had beautiful art lovingly made depicting them.

Fuck the male gaze, fuck the female gaze. Give me the queer gaze. Give me queer creators making queer media for queer audiences and absolutely nailing it. These people are not at all what Hollywood usually thinks sexy looks like, yet we want to devour every one of them. This is what queer beauty looks like. What queer sex appeal looks like. What queer desire looks like.

Fuck yes. It's about time.

#ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd meta

[thesherrinfordfacility]

no listen LISTEN hear me out - what if the 1941 kiss didn't happen at the bookshop. what if it happened in the bit between the zombies leaving and the bookshop. still listening? cool, well picture this - crowley throws down his hat as we see in s2, aziraphale gathers himself and says its all going to be fine - and before he can get a word in crowley's bursting up onto his feet, pacing and ranting, clutching at his hair about how it's "too late, always too late", aziraphale in a fluster trying to calm him down so he can tell him that he's safe it's all okay and then crowley just whirls around grabs aziraphale and snogs the living daylights out of him?? aziraphale is shocked and before he can even start to return it crowley pulls away, "fuck, shit, im sorry... but i just... needed to do that before- well, before." and then he grabs his hat, "c'mon angel, let's get you home", and then boom back at the bookshop where crowley's blatantly Not Talking About It, especially after aziraphale manages to eventually reveal that he saved crowley and all is, in fact, okay. and this tender-boneless-chicken look???:

that - That - is screaming "do it again. please, do it again."

#good omens #s2 meta #flashback meta #1941 spec

[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

[emotionaldisaster909]

ALSO NOTICE THAT

Hua Cheng smiled when qr said that Xie Lian has him on a leash

AND THIS IS THE FACE HE MADE

AFTER QR SAID THAT XIE LIAN WAS LICKING HIS BOOTS

THAT’S

A L L YOU HAVE TO KNOW ABOUT HIM

#tgcf #hualian #xie lian #hua cheng #tian guan ci fu #tgcf thoughts #tgcf season 2 #tgcf donghua #heaven officials blessing #天官赐福 #tgcf analysis #tgcf fandom #tgcf meta #tgcf s2

[stedebonnit]

Can I also say how touching it is that Stede said he believed Ed would he happier without him, who, even in his fantasies, could only picture Ed wanting him as a picture of masculinity with a beard and no hesitation to kill. Stede still, deep down, doesn't understand why Ed would ever want him as he is.

But who did Ed see coming down to rescue him? It wasn't a manly recreation of Stede with a beard, masculine style and a killing spirit, it was a merman. Someone bright, colourful, by all accounts a rather feminine perception of Stede.

That was who rescued Ed. It wasn't who Stede thought he needed to be, it was someone soft, and bright, and graceful, and expressive. Someone feminine, someone queer.

I just think that's beautiful.

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd s2 #merman stede #mermaid stede #d speaks #mine #ofmd meta

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

godddd the way the original e5 “you wear fine things well” scene was backlit by a giant full moon that didn’t actually exist bc this was ed and stede’s fairy tale romance, the way they’re both all dressed up in finery and looking their best after a fancy night out (which didn’t go how either of them expected but that’s not the point the point is it was an Event it was a whole Thing they went to)

and then in the e5 “wear fine things well” 2 electric boogaloo scene the moon is a waxing gibbous because it’s real and stede’s wearing what remains of his fancy suit he had to get rid of and ed’s wearing a fucking. sack and a cat collar. and holding a fucking dead fish. and they’re just catching up after both of them had a pretty normal day doing their own things. this isn’t the picture-perfect fantasy from last season this is both of them grounded in the moment taking it slow because their relationship is worth handling with care. they want this to last and they want this to be real so they’re taking their time, being gentle. they’re not as completely absorbed by each other the way they were last season, they’re their own separate people who can exist in different plotlines for an episode and then come back at the end of the day and catch up, swap stories, kiss and hold hands and just hang out and enjoy being in each other’s presence.

now if you’ll excuse me. i have to go cry.

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd season 2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd s2 #ofmd 2 #edward teach #ed teach #edward teach born on a beach #stede bonnet #stede fucking bonnet #gentlebeard #blackbonnet #ofmd meta #txt #meta #mine #og #s1e05 #s2e05

[ineffablyruined]

Look at this:

Nina walks by and he doesn't even notice.

Then Crowley gets close and his eyes immediately snap to him.

His attention was so focused on the love scene playing out between Gabriel & Beelzebub that he didn't notice a whole other person walking in front of his face, but Crowley goes to leave and he's immediately like, "Babe, you good? Where you going?"

He loves him so much and I can't wait for S3.

Credit to @ohsoldier for the original gif.

#they're not talking because their lips are too busy #that's the only explanation #good omens #good omens s2 #good omens s2 spoilers #good omens s2 meta #crowley #aziraphale #ineffable husbands #ineffable idiots #aziraphale x crowley #crowley x aziraphale #aziracrow #good omens spoilers #ineffablyruined

[crowleys-hips]

ok i know everyone's analyzed the shit out of the Job minisode. but i think everyone has overlooked this Very Important detail, and it's this:

do you see it?

golden kermit collar

thank you for listening

#good omens #good omens s2 #good omens 2 #good omens meta #good omens analysis #aziraphale #aziraphale good omens #good omens aziraphale #good omens theory #ineffable husbands #ineffable idiots #ineffable lovers #ineffable partners #aziracrow #crowley #aziraphale x crowley #crowley x arizaphale #air conditioning #good omens shitpost #good omemes #good omens memes #xanshitposts