it's Mary Poppins ya'll

There are some griefs so loud

They could bring down the sky,

And there are griefs so still

None knows how deep they lie

- May Sarton, "Of Grief", Selected Poems

no thoughts, just Aziraphale leading Crowley who’s high on laudanum

Look at Aziraphale’s face in the last gif. It’s all ”oh give me your worst dear boy” and then he just steps closer 😳

Okay. Okay. I get that we all love Crowley calling Aziraphale 'angel' (bcz WHO FUCKING DOESN'T?? I MEAN, "Blasphemy? That's not not like you, angel." KILLS ME EVERY TIME) and obviously everyone wants Azi to have some cute little pet name for him (**ahem** 'dear' **ahem**) BUT JUST HEAR ME OUT.

BUT WHAT IF. The cute little pet name is literally just?? His name?? Like, I can't be the only one noticing how many times Aziraphale starts his sentences with 'Crowley,' even in the middle of a conversation with no one else around he could be talking to??

ANDANDAND he's the only angel who calls Crowley by his name as opposed to 'demon' (Yes, I'm talking about the fucking metratron rn) or 'the demon Crowley', 'the enemy', etc.

BUT THE THING IS, Crowley never TOLD Aziraphale his name the first time they met- we don't even know what his name WAS back when he was an angel- we know he's changed it before, and the original 'Crawley' doesn't seem particularly suited to an Angel ("well, you were a snake") so we don't even fucking KNOW the name heaven called him back when he was the starmaker.

Even hell barely call him Crowley, with the first scene of Hastur (literally the demon Crowley interacts with the MOST after Beezlebub) featuring him asking "what's he calling himself these days?" (probably just another representation of how little hell actually cares about him, but moving on)

OVERALL, the only person (angel? being? idfk) to CONSTANTLY refer to him by name- whilst talking TO him, not ABOUT him- is Azirophale. Personally, I think that constitutes a 'cute little pet name' 😇😇

Oh dang those are some good points.

And when Aziraphale gets Crowley's name wrong in 41 he catches himself. It takes him time to learn--Crowley has to correct him in 537--but we know from that first, voluntary self-correction that his slip in 537 is a mistake and not deliberate deadnaming. It matters to Aziraphale that he calls Crowley by the name Crowley chooses for himself.

And again in 1941:

That immediate (and genuine) effort Aziraphale makes to reassure Crowley that his surprise at Crowley's new name isn't disapproval or distaste; that acknowledgement that it's on him, Aziraphale, to adjust, not on Crowley to tailor his name to Aziraphale's comfort: Aziraphale wants Crowley to know that he supports Crowley's self-naming.

After the way Aziraphale says Crowley's name in 1793, I would argue it's whatever lies one step closer to the heart than pet names do. But whether it 'qualifies' as a pet name or not, it's unquestionable that Crowley's name and the fact that Crowley chose it matter to Aziraphale, that Crowley knows that, and that when Aziraphale's calls Crowley by his name it carries more meaning between them than just a form of address.

something’s up

another of the marvellous mr. fell, best (?) at his craft

Smol snippet of Jon Hamm reading the Good Omens excerpt at the The Art of Elysium’s 2024 Heaven Gala, 6.1.2024 :) ❤ (I hope we will get it all one day! :) <3)

Jon: From a little story called Good Omens, The Nice and Accurate prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, by Terry Pratchett and our own Neil Gaiman.

The angel waved a hand expansively, if a little unsteadily. "Loads of buggerall, dear boy."

"But it gets there anyway," Crowley persevered.

"How?"

"It doesn't matter!"

"It could use a space ship," said the angel.

Crowley subsided a bit. "Yeah," he said. "If you like. Anyway, this bird—"

"Only it is the end of the universe we're talking about," said Aziraphale. "So it'd have to be one of those space ships where your descendants are the ones who get out at the other end. You have to tell your descendants, you say, When you get to the Mountain, you've got to—" He hesitated.

You all probably know this but there's a video on YouTube of the wonderful Tennant reading that scene as well.

Now all we need is for Michael to read the drunken bookshop convo and we've got the holy trinity of Good Omens actors reading that awesome scene.

Here you go... a snippet, anyway:

And for those of us who are not yet familiar with DT’s reading:

✨Well. This one went in a completely different direction than intended and I’m not sad about it! Have a posh, proper, stylish Azi! Yet another example of “a quick sketch” gone haywire. Shocker. 😆

"that sounds..." "lonely? yeh."

And then they spent the next few thousands of years, making sure the other wasnt lonely. hush, shut up, be quiet, im ill

Isn't that what we all want, at the end of the day?

Isn't that why we make ourselves sick over these two hereditary enemies turned best friends turned celestial soulmates?

Because we all desperately crave the feeling of having someone who, when they hear you're lonely, sits down and goes "Okay, then I'll be lonely with you. Doesn't matter where you are, or what version of you happens to be there, I'll be by your side. Always."

I was rewatching s1e3 and something finally clicked for me..

Please forgive me if this seems obvious to you. It helps me to type out my thoughts, but I'm sure I'm just an idiot and no one else needs this explained to them, lol. That said - I was always slightly confused by the emotional weight of the holy water arc during the flashback sequence. Particularly I was confused by how angry Crowley got when Aziraphale referred to their relationship as fraternizing in the 1862 fight. I mean, "to associate or form a friendship with someone, especially when one is not supposed to" is exactly what they are doing, right? So why the 80 year breakup?

Crowley says he wants the holy water for if "it" all goes pear shaped. The phrasing is necessarily vague, and could mean lots of things. Since I know what he eventually uses it for, I was thinking about it in the context of Armageddon, or maybe more generally and vaguely about Crowley not always choosing to go along with Hell, and associating with Aziraphale. But there was not much reason for Crowley to already be thinking about Armageddon back then.

As we know from the full diary entry Neil posted, the timeline of the Edinburgh entry, and the cut bookshop opening scene, it seems like Crowley and Aziraphale were spending A LOT of time together by the 1800's. When Crowley is pulled back down to Hell in 1827, he learns that Hell is paying more attention to him than he'd previously thought. Crowley realizes at this point that spending so much time with Aziraphale is actively putting him in real danger. He recognizes that, and instead of breaking things off, or seeing Aziraphale less, he doubles down. If this relationship is dangerous, then he wants the tools to fight for it.

That's what I think I didn't get about the holy water request. It's not just general insurance, it's specifically insurance for if Hell finds out about him and Aziraphale. It's also a super vulnerable request because in making it, Crowley is openly acknowledging how important their relationship is to him. Aziraphale casually brings up the arrangement at the beginning of the conversation, and that's part of it, right? Because the whole basis of their relationship is the arrangement. It continues to be the pretense under which they meet, despite the relationship clearly having developed beyond that. And the arrangement, as Crowley proposed it in 537, is born out of convenience, and the assumption that Heaven and Hell would never notice anyway.

Crowley's request for insurance breaks that facade. He's acknowledging that it's not convenient, or safe, but he wants to do it anyway, despite the risk.

Aziraphale, on the other hand, is not ready for the screen to be taken away so abruptly. To make it worse, he assumes Crowley wants the holy water as an escape, rather than a weapon. Suddenly he is confronted with both the danger their association poses, and the idea that Crowley might choose to take his own life. He can't imagine the guilt of being directly responsible for the latter.

I also think the strength of his own emotional response to the thought of loosing Crowley catches Aziraphale off guard. He hasn't admitted to himself how much he actually cares, and it scares him. Worrying about Heaven is more comfortable and familiar, so he falls back on that and switches to "If they knew I'd been... fraternizing!"

But bringing up the threat of Heaven reads to Crowley as Aziraphale saying "You may be willing to put yourself at risk for the sake of our relationship, but I am not." The word choice of "fraternizing" comes off as a dismissive and demeaning way to describe a relationship that Crowley just admitted he would risk his life for.

It's an unintentionally deep cut when Crowley is already at his most vulnerable, and so he lashes out. As far as we've seen, this is possibly the first time the Crowley has truly lashed out at Aziraphale. So yeah, 80 year breakup makes sense!

And what makes this so much worse is what happens next. Crowley reaches out again in 1941 with a dramatic gesture (rescuing Aziraphale from the Nazis, saving his books). It's clear they've missed each other. They don't discuss the fight, but it's there subtextually. Aziraphale, tentatively and thrillingly, refers to them as friends, for the first time ever. He tells Crowley that he trusts him.

And then, that very same night their worst fears are confirmed. Just when they've finally reconciled a fight over the dangers of their relationship, and just when Aziraphale has finally admitted that it is not a relationship of convenience, but genuine friendship, they are exposed. Crowley is going to face punishment from Hell, explicitly for being Aziraphale's "trusted confident", and he doesn't have insurance. If Aziraphale's trick hadn't succeeded, Crowley would have had no way to protect himself.

idk it just makes me feel things ok

Love is stored in the South Downs cottage

I know how to do exactly three things on Procreate, and I’m gonna keep doing them!

the most crowley sunglasses ever inspired by this