I have to say I do think the funniest implied running joke in good omens is how Crowley has decided that the best use of his demonic powers is to make life just a little bit more irritating for everyone who lives in London but without ever considering that HE LIVES IN LONDON
He’s like. Haha. I shall leave these rakes strewn about and surely someone will tread on one and it will snap up and clock them in the face and they will be mad. And then without fail 48 hours later he treads on a rake
This happens every time and every time he’s like ARGH how could I have foreseen this >:[
Monday Crowley: [glues a 50p coin to the sidewalk]
Wednesday Crowley, walking down the street: Oh hey! 50p!
good omens but whenever crowley does something nice or calls aziraphale his friend the x files theme song plays in the background as azira stands there looking confused
crowley: let’s run away together to alpha centauri
aziraphale:
Here you go. I’m almost sorry. Almost.
I didn’t know I needed this in my life until now but here I am ugly laughing
also think about crowley saving aziraphale throughout history and it’s just a thing that aziraphale allows to happen repeatedly and and crowley’s role on earth really runs a lot more toward the angel-saving business with a side of wiling than the other way around, except that when it really matters, the time it really matters, the end of the world, aziraphale won’t let him. aziraphale rejects him. crowley is begging aziraphale to let him save him and aziraphale says no, and crowley goes back again to beg again and aziraphale says no, and then crowley goes back a third time, full up with desperation because hell is here they are already here we have to go now, he gets to the bookshop to beg with aziraphale a third time, and the bookshop is on fire. aziraphale is gone.
it’s not just that somebody killed his best friend. it’s that for the first time ever, crowley didn’t save aziraphale. it’s that hell came for them–crowley doesn’t know that heaven came too. crowley thinks aziraphale was killed by hell because of who and what crowley is, right after aziraphale forgives him for that. right after aziraphale refuses to let crowley save him from that.
in that moment, somebody didn’t kill crowley’s best friend. crowley did.
to the new good omens fans who didn’t read the book
Thats’ ok!!!!! that’s perfectly ok, you don’t have to read it if you don’t want to!!
if it’s because you don’t really like reading, there’s a radio play you can check out, but otherwise the miniseries was absolutely spectacular and there’s Nothing bad with making it the only good omens content you will ever consume. you’re not a fake fan or anything and you’re a treasured member of the fandom either way.
having said that, here’s the original drunk conversation in the back of the bookshop (which was likely shortened to fit the BBC’s strict “No Over 60m Episodes” rule) because it’s a literally life-changing experience
I think the important difference between aziraphale and crowley’s relationship with gender is that like. aziraphale is simply agender. he likes presenting as male, but past that doesn’t really have a concept of gender in relation to his own identity. gender exists on a different plane of reality from which he has entirely separated himself. while crowley actively embraces the idea of gender nonconformity and deliberately uses the fact that he’s nonbinary to present however the hell he wants to. neither have a gender in the conventional human sense, but crowley has a much more involved relationship with the concept of gender exploration and presentation than aziraphale does, whose overall attitude is just like “whatever. I don’t even go here”
as @thevioletsunflower put it, and deserves to be shared with the world: Aziraphale’s gender is “heavens no”. Crowley’s gender is “Hell yes”
Ok but Crowley is the reason Sherlock Holmes is so enduring.
No no, bear with me.
The first stories come out in The Strand. Crowley, newly woken from his near-century of sleep, reads them in Aziraphale’s copy, and really likes them. Aziraphale, who moves in literary circles, offers to introduce him to Doyle.
Crowley is very excited, and when they meet wrings Doyle’s hand and go on about how much he likes the stories.
Doyle, of course, is a rude bastard, and dismisses Crowley’s praise. He doesn’t like the character, he’s not interested in what people like Crowley think to him.
Crowley is initially tempted to destroy him, and ruin his career, but then realises he can get better revenge than that. He makes the popularity of the stories and books blow up. He puts them everywhere. He makes Sherlock Holmes the talk of London. He finances the backstreet presses printing spin-off stories.
And he keeps it going, firing up Holmes’ popularity until Doyle is driven out of his mind, believing in fairies and hating his own work. Until Arthur Conan Doyle is only ever remembered for Sherlock Holmes, and Crowley gets unending adaptations for himself.
I have several head canons to this, most of them pertaining to Crowley and Zira staying involved in Adam’s life precisely because they’re worried about something like this, and well, they missed out on being there for him when they were supposed to be guiding him, so the least they can do is be there for him now.
But perhaps say, in a universe where that doesn’t happen, yes, I do still believe a good child/teen therapist would be able to help him with that, because Adam’s story is our story. We all have power, we can all affect the world we live in an enact change, both great and small. We all have the potential to commit dark, horrible things in the name of despair, and we all grapple with that inner demon on a daily basis. It’s a universal human truth.
But we also have a great capacity for goodness, for kindness, to strive for the light, in both defiance and hope of our despair and just keep putting one foot in front of the other because someone’s got to fix this miss, someone has to do it. And if not you then who?
And while Adam does have very real, metaphysical powers with scope beyond mortal measure, the despair he feels? The overwhelming helplessness he feels at having all that power and not knowing what to do with it, is very much a relatable human emotion. And learning to control that is also part of the human experience, and he can’t learn to be human from a demon or an angel, he has to learn it from other humans. He has to learn where empowerment begins and how not to let it turn into something awful, how to use his sway in the world for good. And that starts with solidarity, love, and hope.
It starts with his friends, his family—his real family, the people who raised him—and if he needs it, a helping hand now and then from another adult trained in how to untangle his headspace.
And maybe a little help from Uncle Anthony every now and then, and a trip out in the Bentley for ice cream sandwiches down by the coast and a chat about ineffability and what it feels like to pick yourself up after you fall. And you’ll always fall, you’ll fall lots of times. It’s only human. But so is getting back up and trying again tomorrow.
