if nothing else i’m glad that the tv adaption brought about the mass headcanon that crowley is raphael and thus is a fallen archangel because that’s SO fucking galaxy brained i don’t know what to do with myself
like THIS is why you welcome new fans with open arms because for thirty years we were making up random angel names for crowley before the fall and then one new tv fan was like ‘what if he was raphael patron saint of healing’ and like their MIND their FUCKING MIND
I liked the one where he was called Anthony and didn’t realise that he’d picked the same name again, but yes! The Patron Saint of Healing has to look at the suffering of children and innocents and question why. Thereby, falling… 😢😭😭
oh my god oh my fucking god he questioned suffering he questioned suffering and was cast out because god is not always merciful this is LITERALLY what i’m talking about i am going to SCREAM
so we all know that Crowley can’t actually drive, he just makes the world around the Bentley shape itself around the car so he can go 90mph in London without getting into accidents
we also all know that angels get around on hover boards in heaven (and probably would on earth too? hmm.) and might just be standard issue to all angels, including Aziraphale
now I want you to take those two thoughts and put them together and imagine Crowley coming across Aziraphale’s hover board (tucked away in a cupboard somewhere behind a lesser bottle of wine and a (more inferior than most) inferior copy of the sound of music)
he steps onto the hover board and immediately crashes face first into the nearest bookshelf, bringing down a wall and taking out a lamp post, avoiding discorporation only by a small miracle
Look what I just spent two days making! Video editing turned out to be much more fun than I expected. Sound editing is still a little tricky, but not bad for a first fanvid of this sort, don’t you think?
“At least cars were better than horses. The internal combustion engine had been a godse- a blessi- a windfall for Crowley. The only horses he could be seen riding on business, in the old days, were big black jobs with eyes like flames and hooves that struck sparks. That was a de rigueur for demons. Usually, Crowley fell off. He wasn’t much good with animals.” – Good Omens, page 57
Folks let me talk about Crowley and sunglasses, because I have a lot of emotions about when he wears them and when he doesn’t, and Hiding versus Being Seen.
We’re introduced to the concept of Crowley wearing glasses even before we’re introduced to Crowley, by Hastur: “If you ask me he’s been up here too long. Gone native. Enjoying himself too much. Wearing sunglasses even when he doesn’t need them.”
Honestly Crowley’s whole introduction is a fantastic; we learn so much about his character in a tiny amount of time. The fact that he’s late, the Queen playing as the Bentley approaches, the “Hi, guys” in response to Hastur and Ligur’s “Hail Satan”. I like this intro much better than the one originally scripted with the rats at the phone company, but I digress.
Crowley wears sunglasses when he doesn’t need them. Specifically, he still wears them around the demons, and when he’s in hell.
You know where Crowley doesn’t wear glasses? At home.
We never once see him wearing glasses in his flat, except for when he knows Hastur and Ligur are coming. That’s an emotional kick to the gut for me. Here’s one of the only places Crowley’s comfortable enough to be sans glasses, and when he knows it’s going to be invaded he prepares not just physically with the holy water, but by putting up that emotional barrier in a place where he wasn’t supposed to need it.
An argument could be made that Crowley actually never needs glasses. We’re shown that it’s well within the angels’ and demons’ powers to pass unnoticed by humans. Crowley and Aziraphale waltz out of the manor in the middle of a police raid, and going unnoticed by the police takes so little effort that they can keep up a conversation while they stroll through. Even an unimaginative demon like Hastur apparently doesn’t have trouble with the humans losing it over his demonic eyes. The humans in the scene at Megiddo are acting like “this guy is a little weird” and not “holy shit his entire eyeballs are black jelly”
That means that Crowley’s glasses are a choice, just like Aziraphale’s softness. Sure, he could arrange matters so that nobody ever noticed his eyes, but he doesn’t want to. Crowley wants acceptance, and he wants to belong, and he’s never, ever had that. He didn’t fit in before the Fall in Heaven, he doesn’t fit in with the demons in Hell. With the glasses, and with the Bentley and his plants and with the barely-bad-enough-to-be-evil nuisance temptations, he’s choosing Earth. This is where he wants to fit in, perhaps not with the humans, but amongst them.
Even after Crowley is at his absolute lowest, when he thinks Aziraphale’s dead and he’s on his way to drink until the world ends, he takes the time to put a new pair on when the old ones are damaged. He needs that emotional crutch right now, even with everything about to turn into a pile of puddling goo he’s not ready for the world to see his eyes.
Which is why I swore out loud when Hastur forciblytakes them off.
It’s about the worst thing that Hastur could have done. Rather than leading with a physical threat, his first act is to strip away Crowley’s emotional defences. It’s a great writing choice because god it made me hate Hastur, even more than all the physical violence we see him do.
It’s also the moment that Crowley really truly gets his shit together, and focuses all of his considerable imagination on getting to Tadfield and Aziraphale to help save the world. He’s wielding the terrifyingly unimaginable power of someone who’s hit rock bottom and realised it literally could not get any worse than this. He doesn’t put another pair of glasses on after discorporating Hastur, and he spends the majority of the airbase sequence without them.
He puts them back on again, I think, at the moment that he really lets himself hope. When he thinks ‘shit, there may be a real chance that we get through this to a future that I don’t want to lose’.
The vulnerability is back, and he needs Adam to trust him. In Crowley’s mind being accepted by a human means he needs to have his eyes hidden. Someone give the demon a hug, please.
Interestingly, there’s only one time in the whole series that we see Crowley willingly choose to take his glasses off around another person. Only one person he’ll take down that barrier for, and even then he’s drunk before he does it.
Dear God/Satan/Someone that makes my heart ache. Crowley’s chosen Earth, but he’s also chosen Aziraphale. He’s been looking for somewhere to belong his entire existence, and it’s with the angel that he finally feels it.
When the dust settles and the world is saved and they finally have space to be themselves unguarded, I like to imagine Crowley takes off the glasses when it’s just the two of them; the idea of being known doesn’t scare him quite so much anymore.
also OH MY GOD THAT LAST GIF I NEVER NOTICED THE WINK BEFORE?????????
Aziraphale in the paintball scene, though. I mean, seriously, y’all
Look
at
this
absolute
nerd
Especially that last gif! This is an angel that is literally thousands of years old, he helped create the motherfuckin’ universe, and he is p o u t i n g at Crowley over some paint on his jacket that he could EASILY remove himself.
But wait! There’s more!
Not only has Aziraphale already shown Crowley the stain, but Crowley has already circled him to assess the damage for himself.
And yet, after saying, “Well, I would always know the stain was there,” with that little pout, he turns to show Crowley the stain again.
And then! AND THEN!!
He gives Crowley this look.
Do you see the little raise of his eyebrows??? LOOK AGAIN
He could very easily get rid of this stain himself, but he is doing E V E R Y T H I N G in his power to get Crowley to do it for him.
“I could do this myself,” he’s saying, “but I’d rather you do it. You can do it better than me, can’t you? Please? Please, won’t you???”
The funniest part about this, fam, is that we all know Crowley needs very little prompting to actually indulge Aziraphale’s whims. He’s incredibly indulgent, anyways, we see ample evidence of that in Hard Times.
But this…I think (?) this is the first time that we see Aziraphale actively seeking out and trying to manipulate his way into getting one of those acts of service that Crowley so does like to give to him.
Like, sure, back during the Shakespeare scene, Aziraphale gives Crowley that very hopeful, “oh, WILL YOU?” look when Shakespeare mentions needing a miracle for Hamlet, but that is so different from this.
This is Aziraphale KNOWING that Crowley indulges and using that knowledge for his personal gain.
AND CROWLEY GIVES IT TO HIM. HE JUST. DOES.
That is the face of a spoiled angel that has gotten exactly what he wanted–a certain demon’s love and attention.
And that look Crowley gives him is just as devastating to me as Aziraphale’s sunshine smile over getting what he wanted.
That is a look of UTTER INDULGENCE.
He absolutely knows he’s been played but is happy to let it happen, because there is nothing quite as satisfying as indulging Aziraphale.
That is a look that says, “You’re so obvious, angel, and it’s adorable.”
He’s made his angel happy, what the fuck does he care?
YEAH!!!!! Technically there’s that scene where Aziraphale is “calling” God but it really is framed that way–as a phone call, rather than a prayer, though it uses the surface level palms-together-eyes-closed posture of prayer.
As you say, Crowley’s the only one doing the shouting-at-the-ceiling variety of talking to God, which is the most prayerlike prayer you can make, IMO. I also have some half-formed theories that he has a more personal and intimate relationship with God than any other character in the show? For one thing, there’s the tone and wording of the one-sided conversation he has with her vs the two Aziraphale has (one when he’s phone-call “praying” and the “Where’s the flaming sword I gave you, Aziraphale?” scene). If English had retained its formal-vs-informal “you/thou” distinction, Aziraphale would be horrified to use anything else but You (formal) to God, whereas Crowley is clearly thouing it up all over the place (informal/familiar).
Also I feel like he thinks about her and her motives more actively than anyone else – he doesn’t just write it off as “ineffable”, he asks questions. He presses because he wants to UNDERSTAND, not just blindly accept.
You know how when writers have a favorite character, they love them so much that they put them through all manner of hell and torture, just to watch them shine? I think Crowley might be God’s favorite character.
