i don’t think i’ve seen any kind of tumblr analysis that so far does justice to the face journey crowley goes through when he first meets aziraphale and finds out about the sword.
for context’s sake, this is how he reacts when he finds out aziraphale’s got rid of his own sword:
see that? that’s surprise, that’s unexpectedly-impressed, that’s holy-shit-this-is-an-angel-fucking-up-this-delights me. this is is this a rebellion? can angels rebel? i love it, five minutes on this strange green-and-blue rock and i’ve already found a playmate.
then compare with this, which is crowley hearing aziraphale explain why he ‘rebelled’ by giving away said sword: to whit, freezing cold, dangerous animals, pregnant woman:
that’s…dare i say it, tender? soft? certainly no less surprised but unexplicably, unexpectedly, touched. you can almost see the little flinch he experiences from that not-so-subtle heartflip that has just occurred. oh. oh. he didn’t lose his sword because he’s a brainless angel, or because he wanted to cause some trouble or stick it to the almighty he was just…being nice.
like, whatever reason the forces of hell had for rebelling, they sure as hell didn’t do it for nice reasons. i’m pretty certain, judging by the hell we see onscreen, that compassion features pretty heavily Down There. (nor, judging by the likes of gabriel or sandalphon, can i imagine angels are exactly known for their compassion amongst their demonic counterparts). crowley has come to earth expecting exactly 0% heartstrings-pulling, and then within the first half hour he meets this fluffy soft boi who smiles rather shyly even when he’s not supposed to and is painfully loyal to his boss even when he doesn’t understand Her ways and then does something daft like that, like giving away a heavenly flaming sword to a human for no other reason other than it’s a kind thing to do
and he’s an angel, they’re not supposed to do the wrong thing for the right reason, they’re sticklers, and yet look at what he’s just done…
and the next thing you know, crowley’s falling harder and faster than the day lucifer and the guys rocked up and asked ‘hey crawley, you up to anything today?’. and that is glorious.
also while we’re talking about the unacceptable face journeys of one anthony j. crowley, can we talk about his reaction to aziraphale reiterating that heaven will win the final battle
he’s touched.
a little sad, maybe, but ultimately touched. not mocking, like oh you really believe so do you, you naive angel? not angry, like you think you’re so much better than me, do you? not defiant, like we’ll just see about that, won’t we. when aziraphale announces that ‘good’ is going to triumph over evil, crowley’s first response is to think ‘aww. that’s kinda nice. my idealistic angel’s so cute’.
one thing i wish people would talk about a bit more is what aziraphale brings to the table in this relationship, which is a gentle-hearted, slightly naive but ultimately sweet sense of optimism. crowley’s pretty cynical about everything. he’s certainly lost faith in both heaven and hell – to a certain extent he’s even lost faith in humanity, because he knows that when you give humans an inch they take a mile and when you give them free will and a bunch of machine guns they shoot each other with the machine guns. but aziraphale is soft and sweet and genuinely tries to believe the best in things, and crowley just thinks that’s so damn adorable.
of course he then points out that even if heaven does win it’ll be an eternity of teetotalism and the sound of music but c’mon it’s crowley, he wouldn’t be crowley if he wasn’t encouraging aziraphale to think outside the box a little
