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oh I think perhaps you've got the wrong shop

@ineffable-endearments / ineffable-endearments.tumblr.com

Personal blog is chaoticlivi. This one is for Good Omens! The background of my header image is by @TeaFoxIllustrations. The lines and color are by me.
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Nineteen Eighty-Four: Quotations of interest and Good Omens philosophy

There were a few passages in the novel that stood out, that I wanted to bring to your attention, because they were interesting - but also because they articulated certain things that were hard for me to articulate myself. And, of course, there are ways they connect to how I interpret Good Omens, especially the behavior of Heaven and Hell.

Because of the last couple of paragraphs in the Good Omens novel, I really believe the core themes of Nineteen Eighty-Four are somewhere in its DNA.

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irispurpurea

The journey from “god was wrong to cast out Crowley” to “god was wrong to cast out anyone” to “god can’t be wrong or right because wrong and right don’t come from god, they come from us” to “we were wrong to just accept the Fall of our brethren without questioning or challenging it” to “we can make it all anew, make it right, together

(to maybe what god wanted all along was for us to question and to challenge)(but that isn’t for us to know and it never will be)(to all we can do in the face of divine ineffability is define our own Purpose, who we are and what we value, and hold to it and to each other as tightly as we can)

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flameraven

This reminds me of a really excellent meta:

One of the reasons that Crowley is such a sympathetic character is that he asks the same questions that any person who has both faith and compassion would ask. (The idea that a demon is the moral center of the story is a think for another post.) If God is all-powerful and all-knowing, why is there so much suffering in the world? Is God actively causing the suffering? Why? Does she just not care? Why doesn’t she make it stop? Ah, you say, but God has a plan! All these things are happening for a reason; we just don’t know why. But here’s the thing. A God with a secret plan, a vindictive God who wants us to suffer, and no God at all…they’re all functionally indistinguishable from down here on Earth. The result is the same. We suffer and we don’t know why. By definition, we cannot know why, if there is a reason at all. […] While the narrative of Good Omens leaves itself open to the “actually God planned it this way all along” interpretation, I don’t, personally, think it’s the most interesting one. I think the more interesting questions are along the lines of: What kind of life would you lead if you believed God had forsaken you? (Not if you didn’t think God was there, but if you knew God would not help you or clarify anything for you.) What then becomes important? What sort of person do you decide to be, when you don’t have any choice but to be on your own side? And who do you want on that side with you?

I highly recommend reading the full meta post, but I think this gets at some core themes of Good Omens that will be very important in S3, and I think you summed it up perfectly. “(to all we can do in the face of divine ineffability is define our own Purpose, who we are and what we value, and hold to it and to each other as tightly as we can)” What God wants, whatever Ineffable Plan She has… we (and the characters) can’t know it– and so it doesn’t matter. The core theme of Good Omens S1/the book is about the freedom to be who you are, not who you are told you are supposed to be. I think we’re going to see that again in S3 on an even broader scale, extending to Heaven and Hell, and dismantling the Sides entirely. Angels and Demons deserve the freedom to decide their own Purpose.

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CROWLEY’S LAMENT!!!

At long last, it’s here! My eight minute Good Omens-inspired rock opera/character study Crowley’s Lament is out TODAY. This has been such a labor of love for the better part of a year, and I am unbelievably proud to finally present it to all of you. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll headbang. You’ll squeal. I hope you enjoy my music, lyrics, and Walmart David Tennant voice. To the World, everyone!!!

Special thanks to @holmee for the GORGEOUS thumbnail art- I asked for Crowley dramatically sprawled out on a piano and she couldn’t have possibly delivered finer results.

I know this song premiered less than two weeks ago, but HOW it's not all over tumblr?! Good Omens fandom, please don't sleep on it, go and listen to this masterpiece right freaking now.

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neil-gaiman

In Italy, this year, for the Diversity Media Awards, among the foreign series candidates there is also Good Omens.

"The Diversity Media Awards reward the characters and media content that have contributed to a valorising representation of diversity in the areas of gender and gender identity, sexual and emotional orientation, physical appearance, ethnicity, age and generations, disability."

Did you know that?

Good luck to all the nominees, but to Good Omens in particular!

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I didn't know that. It's wonderful.

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mrghostrat
flawless (E) (36k) (FIN)
Aziraphale steadfastly reminded himself this was a good thing. It hurt like nothing had ever hurt before, but the silver lining was actually bright, and broad, and glistened like diamonds. If he focused on that light ahead, he might not even feel the chill of the rain where it continued to pummel him.
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The Big Damn Kiss

Buckle up, my fellow Good Omens Ineffable Mystery Puzzlers, Crackpotters, and Assorted Brainrotters, because I learned something HUGE yesterday.

This will be a bit of a long post, because I want to show you exactly how I got where I am. I want you to understand. I want to put all the naysayers to bed (ha! But I'm still gonna try), and settle this once and for all.

I know (almost) exactly what Crowley gave to Aziraphale during the kiss.

DO NOT TAKE ANY OF MY THEORIES TO NEIL! PLEASE!

Okay? Okay. Thanks. Shall we begin?

Ahem.

Firstly, whether you believe me or not, I am 100% certain that Crowley did, indeed, give something to Aziraphale in his mouth during The Kiss. I've covered that in the link previous. Okay? Okay.

I did not know what it was. I've now heard theories that it was a bullet (nope), a ball bearing (nope), hellfire (nope), and no one, NO ONE has suggested what I see. (If you have, hello! Talk to me!)

Here's our first foreshadowing Clue:

And here's our next foreshadowing Clue:

And the next:

And our last Clue:

With me so far? Well, that first GIF is a bit off, I couldn't find one of Crowley actually spitting out the flies. But he does. When Beelzebub first drags him to Hell, he actually goes "Pleaugh!" and spits out four or five flies.

Moving right along, we come to Crowley in Heaven with Muriel, looking at the trial. We learn two important things here:

One, Gabriel doesn't have a desk.

Two, Muriel does. Where they keep the records. And it's a bit lonely. Every few hundred years, someone comes and asks for something. Muriel can't access the sensitive ones, you have to be pretty high up. A throne, dominion, or higher. Like, maybe Supreme Archangel?

So if Gabriel doesn't have a desk, whose desk is he at when he's getting ready to leave Heaven? Of course I can't find a damn picture of Gabriel at the desk, but it's Muriel's. Where they keep the RECORDS.

Gabriel puts his memory into the fly, then gets on the elevator to go to Earth.

Now, when Gabriel opens the fly with his memories inside, we find out that it's a container. Bigger on the inside. You can put thing(S) in it. The bit we see of him remembering is shot in two parts, one where he's flying down a red tunnel, one where he's flying down a blue. If you slow this scene down and watch, you can see that he is NOT looking at just his own memories. There is more going on here, more that he was not present for. @embracing-the-ineffable put up a great meta about that here. Go look!

Now I figured Gabriel must have taken something else. Something important. Something useful. Something he meant to give to Aziraphale, except he forgot.

I also figured he must have left whatever it was in the fly when he took his memories out. Crowley must have realized while watching the trial footage that Gabriel also grabbed something else. I don't know when Crowley grabs the fly, but he does. And that is what he gives to Aziraphale in the kiss. Why? Well.

I had no idea what Gabriel took until I started working on the chiastic structure of season 2. I'm not done with that analysis yet, but let me show you one thing that I have found so far:

(The numbers are just to try and help me navigate the story and its events without time stamps)

My note #357 of what happens isn't quite right, but when I saw the only two times Aziraphale says "I forgive you" are towards the beginning of Season 2 and towards the end, I realized I had something.

Rephrase line 357: Crowley's kiss is forgiven IN EXCHANGE FOR RECORDS.

(Not that I think Crowley's kiss needs to be forgiven. It's just what Aziraphale says, and had to say at that moment, because the Metatron was listening in.)

What does Heaven in Good Omens remind us of most of all?

A big corporate entity. And what do powerful people do when they get fired from a big corporate entity? They download all their emails while they're cleaning out their desks. Damning emails. Emails that can be used to black mail or even destroy big corporate entities. Or, ya know, maybe they swipe some sensitive RECORDS?

Oh yes.

Here's Aziraphale reading the records:

Here's Aziraphale being horrified and outraged by what he's reading:

And here's Aziraphale realizing he has got some GOOD DIRT on Heaven. Maybe enough to bring them down:

That's it folks. I have no idea what the records actually say, and maybe we're not meant to know until season 3, but whatever it is, it's GOOD.

That's my story, and by God Herself, I'm sticking to it.

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WAKE UP BRATS!!! A brand new song (Aziraphale-coded song AT THAT) just dropped!!

It's actually just a song for my "how to ruin a revelation" EP, but since Aziraphale and I share some certain experiences and parts od lore, I thought I'd share this one too. An addition to "let there be light", I suppose then. It's silly and very raw, and my knuckles do hurt, but I think the message is coming through.

I think I could call it.. "a waltz for the in betweeners"???? Maybe???

Lyrics:

what if I don't want to go up to Heaven

what's left of life, beyond the grave?

and what if I don't want to go back to Eden

what's left of it, if there's no snake?

you taught me to dance

you taught me to eat

taught me how to kiss

and that I like it sweet

so why would I leave this Earth behind?

God knows, nowhere else could I find

you

[🎶]

all the composers I've ever admired

could not bear to humour the angel choirs

and none of the actors I greet in the foyer

I'd see up there, granted a golden star

they taught me to watch

they taught me to read

taught me how to love

and what's it like to grieve

it's not that I ask for a pass to Hell

God knows that I want to live well

but when doomsday comes

and our time is nigh

and our neighbours weep

weaving their last goodbye

I want to stay landing, between the floors

if needed

just to hold a hand of yours

[🎶]

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