I Can Understand Why People Want To Think The Coffee Was Laced Or Something But The Answer Is A Lot More

I'm not really getting the Aziraphale hate because even without all the pressures of religious brainwashing etc etc we've literally just seen through his eyes:

- Crowley radiating joy at the sheer wonder of the universe only to be crushed by orders from up high

- Those orders being the ONLY reason Crowley fell. Aziraphale knows (and has always known) that Crowley fell simply because no one wanted to listen to his ideas.

- 6000 of Crowley clearly aching to do good in defiance of his own nature

- Crowley admitting how desperately lonely that defiance is for him

- Crowley being BETTER than Aziraphale at morality and making Aziraphale better as a result

- Evidence that no one is ever going to be chill with Angel/Demon relationships unless they are too powerful to be stopped and/or willing to vanish

- That they are never going to escape the monitoring of heaven/hell (they literally were *stalked* by both sides the entire season) so they can't just live unnoticed among humans

- Even during their last few years of 'freedom' Crowley has still been desperately unhappy. He's at the 'what's the point of it all???' stage BEFORE anything bad happens in S2. For all he talks about the preciousness of their life, Crowley is radiating misery during his freedom whereas Aziraphale actually seems happy.

Like why WOULDN'T Aziraphale see this offer as the perfect solution? Crowley can get what he always wanted - to do good without anyone stopping him, with Aziraphale helping. It can be exactly like the nebula scene forever - only this time Aziraphale can just bask in Crowley's joy.

From his pov he is sacrificing his own life on Earth for THAT.

Oof we are in the last 20% of a very angsty slow burn, kiddos.

-it takes a lot to breathe,

to touch, to feel,

-the slow reveal of what

another body needs.

Here's the thing though right. What if Crowley didn't actually realize he was in love? He projects his very own "fall in love" scenario (sheltering from the rain) onto Maggie and Nina, but when Nina suggests that they're an item he looks quietly dumbstruck. He doesn't even think to say anything until the others tell him he needs to. We all know he fell in love on the walls of Eden, but I don't think he *does*.

And then Aziraphale, who takes longer to get there, gets his revelation when Crowley saves his books. He's known how he feels since 1941, with all the fear and quiet devastation that goes with it. And now, now that they're free, he's ready. He wants to move on with Crowley, he touches and flirts and dances and says "our car". He's *ready*. And he's trying to show it the best way he knows how.

But Crowley doesn't know. Crowley who's loved him so well from the very beginning, DOESN'T EVEN KNOW IT'S LOVE HE'S FEELING, and he doesn't understand what Aziraphale's been trying to tell him. And now he's alone.

no but it's the way for aziraphale "nothing lasts forever" meant "i'm willing to give up the bookshop if it means i can be with you safely" and for crowley it meant "nothing lasts forever, not the bookshop, not earth, not us"

everyday i watch people on twitter praise a show that has one or two queer characters in 2024 for being groundbreaking for things torchwood did in 2006

listening to the pronunciation samples wikipedia offers of different types of consonants and you know what, I don't believe some of these are actually different sounds. I think this is some audiophile shit like gold-plated cables.

Aziraphale was not miracled by the coffee you guys. He legit thinks he’s doing the right thing. That’s what makes it so sad.

He wants to go with Crowley but he can’t because the opportunity to fix everything is too important and how does Crowley not understand??? Why won’t he just COME WITH ME TO FIX EVERYTHING!???

Then Crowley kisses him and that just completely shatters him because he can’t go with him. In his eyes, he can’t pass up this chance no matter how much he doesn’t want to hurt Crowley. “I forgive you” for not coming to fix things with me. And Crowley knows the moment he says that he’s not going to change his mind and says “don’t bother”. Don’t bother forgiving me, don’t bother explaining why you won’t come with me. Just don’t bother. I’m done trying to convince you.

Perfectly in character. Horribly tragic. Poetic cinema.

Torn between duty and love. One chooses love, one chooses duty.

Classic.

I think part of the problem of modern storytelling is there has been a shift from character focus to message focus.

It's Doctor Who saying "look the evil alt right podcaster has trapped everyone in a weird heteronormative wish world that's baaaaaad uhb we don't know how to resolve it satisfyingly" vs "Rose dragged along a guy she thought cute and he turned out to be a jerk and used time travel to gain access to future secrets and we see her and the Doctor react to that in a way thar shows us more about their character." It's "the Beatles are here kind of as a backdrop to our drag queen villain isn't that fun woo musical number" vs "let's tell a touching story about Vincent van Gogh's depression and relate that to what our characters are currently going through."

And its not just Doctor Who--it's pervasive. It's "let's tell a character focused story of Anakin Skywalker's fall to the darkness and the love around him that wasn't enough" vs "Star Wars is GAY and look at her BLEED her LIGHTSABER." It's "Here's a 19 year old who lost her parents and has to raise her difficult sister, let's see her motivations and love for her sister" vs "Nani is doing the Right Thing for Herself because going to College is Girlboss!"

And this isn't the first time the focus of storytelling has shifted--before it was character focused, we had concept focus. Doctor Who exploring Roman times or a realm made of stories, where characters carry the plot, but aren't the focus of episodes. Episode IV of star wars was certainly a conceptual idea more than character focused, exploring the world and building it as you go. Old Disney like Snow White explored the concept of retelling a fairytale in animation.

I just think that unfortunately the focus of mainstream stories is not to explore a concept, or interesting characters, but to push a message.

Also what the fuck was the im sorry dance. They really just did that and there was no further context. One of them said "do a silly little jig for my forgiveness" one day and they both just. Committed. What is wrong with them I wanna study them under a microscope