Bible: Angels Are Actually Wheels Of Eyes And Flames Me: Cool My Mind Visualising This:

anyway i love muriel so much, they looked terrified on the elevator ride down to earth with their bosses and crowley but the second they all step into the bookshop muriel's like oooh BOOKS! and completely tunes out of the conversation 😭 they literally don't look up from this book until aziraphale rings that bell to call for order, and then they go right back to it when shax starts talking i'm DECEASED.

me when i've just been caught helping a demon access sensitive files by one of my bosses, exposing the mystery of the entire season, and then get dragged into a fight between my bosses and the bosses of hell but i'm autistic and very nervous so i just read this book for the entire debacle

I wanna talk about The Angel Who Would Be Crowley.

Because I had a certain set of expectations, which got thoroughly trashed in the first five minutes of S2, and my genuine response is, "Oh, fuck, yup. You're right. That's WAY better."

Looking around at GO fandom, I'm not alone in this. So let's talk about it.

Basically, a lot of people (myself included) believed that he was a high-ranking angel, and therefore as chilly and remote as every other powerful angel we'd seen at that point. We pictured Crowley-To-Be as long-haired, regal and imposing --and the fanart at the time reflected this. I'd link some if Tumblr didn't hate links.

Something like this:

We were collectively drawing on a few things --mostly, Crawly's appearance and general bearing in the Biblical scenes of S1--

--But also scattered hints of his importance, backed up by conspicuous absences in Heaven and a few profound displays of power. That's all better covered elsewhere, so I won't reiterate the arguments here. All I'm saying is: I think our headcanons were justified.

But it turns out he was this:

!!!

With his curly little--!!

And his neat white--!!

IT TURNS OUT, he was an angel who squeaked and squealed when he was happy; who flailed his arms around and made explosion noises with his mouth to explain nebulas; who preened when told his stars were pretty. Furfur, who knew him before the Fall, says:

"You used to jump on me back, little monkey in a waistcoat..."

(The use of a diminutive there, 'little'...oh, that fascinates me.)

In a pretty huge subversion of expectations, we're given these glimpses of an angel who was sweet, and joyful, and heart-meltingly silly.

In sum...an innocent.

(Perhaps innocent to a troubling degree.

We see how he troubles Aziraphale, during their first conversation. He starts looking around and behind them, checking to make sure that no one can HEAR the blithe and reckless things coming out of this angel's mouth. This angel who talks like he's never been reprimanded in his life; like it's never occurred to him that anyone would want to hurt him.

Before the Beginning, Aziraphale understood Heaven better than he did. The danger is plainly occurring to Aziraphale.)

So now, we the viewers are in on a cruel joke that Aziraphale has known all along, which is that this --THIS-- is the angel who--

*checks notes*

--did a million lightyear freestyle dive into a boiling pool of sulphur. For asking questions.

...Imagine you are Aziraphale, and everything inside you wants to believe Heaven are the Good Guys, and God is Good and Everything She does is capital-R Right...and now try to reconcile that. Keep trying. I don't think he ever totally managed it in 6000 years.

All this gets further complicated when we learn that, despite all of the above, we were still right. That sweet excitable babby up there?

He WAS a powerful and high-ranking angel.

That much is explicitly confirmed, with significant evidence that he could have been among the mightiest of archangels...

...Who apparently accosted his fellow angels for piggyback rides. And was remembered millennia later by those (now fallen) angels as something 'little.'

What does that tell us about who he was? Is?

Hell, Aziraphale has known to be wary of the archangels (and the judgements of Heaven in general) since before the Fall even happened. He chooses to believe they are Good; he can't fool himself into thinking they are Safe.

Yet he's absolutely certain that Crowley won't hurt Job's children. Enough to stand in a burning building and say to them, "I can't save you, but don't be afraid. I won't need to."

And what reason does he give?

("I know you."

"You do not know me."

"I know the angel you were.")

What does that tell us about who he was? Is?

("The angel you knew is not me."

But how is Aziraphale supposed to believe that, when he can see him all the time?)

tl;dr --yes, this is better. I love the tragedy of it.

'Innocence died screaming' and all that.

If I read something on the asks that feels genuinely threatening or dangerous, or that's actually abusive, I just delete it and block the person.

If I'm answering an ask here you can assume that as far as I'm concerned even if it's apparently threatening or angry, it's meant humorously or with love.

It's never appropriate to dogpile people. Never appropriate to threaten or abuse them, even if you think you are doing it for me and with the best of intentions. Don't.

If you are upset on my behalf, or on behalf of all Tumblr users, just think "this is probably a tone-deaf attempt at humour" and let it go.

you’re hearing it more and more

I know this has been said so many times already but Ice King has one of my favorite redemption arcs in any tv show. Because it wasn’t a redemption arc at all.

He didn’t adjust himself, instead the people around him adjusted their view of him. And once they understood him, and once he felt understood, he didn’t feel like he needed to take as many drastic measures to have interaction with others. He didn’t need to kidnap people because people started wanting to hang out with him. Thats just such a brilliant and beautiful twist on the villain to hero trope.

Motaz Azaiza by P e t a l T o g e t h e r

Simon Petrikov is the character ever because he manages to exist on all sides of the tumblr sexyman spectrum

I honestly think that Aziraphale was wholeheartedly trying to advance his and Crowley's relationship, in his own incredibly adorable and old fashioned way, in Season 2. There are so many instances where Aziraphale is flirting, touching, lovingly gazing, and extending offers he would normally feel to uncomfortable to make. Like, wanting to dance with Crowley. That is a huge step forward for someone that moves as slowly as Aziraphale does. He is an anxious bean. He tries to establish that its their car and bookshop. He's trying to blur the lines in their possessions a little bit there. Aziraphale even reached out for help to Crowley first and wanted them to work together on protecting Gabriel. Of course, poor Crowley doesn't seem to notice it at all, because he's usually the one testing the waters, seeing how far he can tempt Aziraphale. He's been protecting their fragile existence for ages.

Aziraphale is breaking down boundaries very subtly. He was trying to progress the intimacy in their relationship, by being a little more blatant with his flirtations. With how hedonistic Aziraphale is, I wouldn't doubt that he'd want to try a more human way of approaching his and Crowley's relationship. Moving it from a 6,000 year old friendship to a romantic one. He wants his Jane Austen romance. I cannot be told that if that kiss had happened at any other point, Aziraphale would have been over the moon. He even struggles between reciprocating or pushing Crowley away, which he chooses to do neither.

Unfortunately that kiss was ruined, because it was loaded with so much emotional pain and desperation that it essentially acted as a weapon against Aziraphale. Here is what you're leaving behind, here is what we could have had. You were so close to this weren't you?

I had the great pleasure of designing/animating a bunch of 3D stuff for the last two episodes of Fionna and Cake! It was a joy to work with this low-poly adventure game style. Hope you all enjoyed this great show!!