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"every day itsa gettingcloser
goingfaster than a roller coaster"
the roller-coaster in question
HOW?????
the demons in hell must be having a riot there's all these rumors about crowley and aziraphale dating and allegedly theres a picture of them together and then 90 years later you hear that a demon and angel ran off to alpha centauri and you're like oh must be crowley and aziraphale they've been a thing for ages but NO its your boss beelzebub (ex boss now, apparently) and heaven's supreme archangel fucking gabriel. like how do you go back to work after hearing this
Okay how is nobody talking about the fact that Nina called Maggie “angel” when they were having their little chat with Crowley in the last episode ?????
Also I’m rewatching season 1 and just noticed that sergeant Shadwell mentions Me Dalrymple in ep. 5 after coming back from the bookshop.
He says “nobody’s ever done what I’ve done. Not Hopkins, not Siftings, not Dalrymple.”
Me all last weekend (and anytime I remember the ending)
...and with them, your ineffably beautiful fanart of Aziraphale and Crowley. It's also worth pointing out that most of this art was posted in the last day or so. The show has been out for a mere weekend. Please never change, Tumblr <3
(This post goes out to everyone who has seen the second season. SPOILERS AHEAD. MILD BUT STILL SPOILERY. PLEASE BE WARNED.)
@fiovske:
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@blewsee:
@forestofsprites:
@surfinded:
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@liinchaan:
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@mistysblueboxstuff:
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@lookitsstevie:
the first thing my sibling said after we finished watching episode 6 (again) was “fuck you Neil!” in near tears and same…
Episode 5: The Ball
Actually you know what? We can bring back the magic show minisode here bc it shows Azicrow working well as a team that fully trusts one another. Also sleight of hand moments. All of which can sort of tie in back to their teamwork in infiltrating Heaven.
The actual heist will prolly end up being in this episode considering how much happens in the previous one. BUT SUSPENSE!!! CLEVER TACTICS!!!
Maybe a little meddling of something in heaven to improve it a little? Would be nice to give a tiny taste of the change Az feels he could do if Azicrow were in charge of heaven. Don’t ask me for details, I don’t know Christianity enough to know the lore of how GOmens’s Heaven works.
Az could perhaps ask Crowley if he misses Heaven and being a starmaking angel? Gimme some of that guilt from Az thanks
They find out about the matchbox and the box thing, Crowley asks Az where the box is and asks him why tf he didn’t look at the underside
Maybe if the archangels and Muriel find Az in the midst of the heist, they could be like “what are you doing here I thought you left us and we agreed to leave you alone after the whole Hellfire thing”, and Az could be like “ah, well, uh, you see,, I heard there was a huge commotion about Gabriel going missing? And I was wondering why you wanted to find him? Are you planning to punish him or something?”. Maybe he convinces Heaven that Gabriel is sufficiently being punished after losing his memories/says he’ll ensure that Gabriel is punished properly for Heaven, idk. Maybe tell them to focus on choosing a new Head Archangel.
If there’s still time, more Bureaucracy bonding moments. Have them really enjoy spending time together.
Episode 6: Every Day
I think it would be funny if Azicrow walked in on a Bureaucracy bonding moment. There’s nothing worse than catching your respective ex-bosses act totally cringe around each other.
They find the message under the box, and everyone is like Az,, where is the damn fly. He’s like shit,, I tossed it away(!) out the window.
Where is the fly? Idk honestly. Maybe it got stuck in the jukebox in the Ressurectionist — I once had a baby cockroach enter the space between the screen and the glass of my rice cooker and it died there and nobody knows how to get the corpse out now. Maybe it’s just chilling amongst the hundreds of copies of Buddy Holly in Maggie’s shop. I don’t know nor really care where it is.
If anyone tells me why tf Bee didn’t just find and communicate with Gabe’s fly earlier and figure out his memories are in there, lemme just say, Bee didn’t even bother in S2 to track down Gabe with his fly. They sent a bunch of demons to search for him instead. Once again I will reiterate that I do not know Christianity enough to fully know the lore of how certain things work, like Bee’s fly-related powers, in GOmens. Does Bee know the contents of all container flies? Is Bee acutely aware of all flies on Earth at any given time and place, or is it only in like a certain radius? Can Bee even communicate with flies? Is Bee a fly? I don’t even know man.
Either way they get Gabe’s memories back and right before they fuck off to Alpha Centauri or Edinburgh or wherever, Bee resigns from their position, prolly under the guise of having found and now tormenting Gabe for all eternity or smth
By the way, let’s not have the “Wherever Bee is is my Heaven” “And wherever you are, my sweet, is my Hell” like come on bro, they’re comparing each other to their respective toxic workplaces! That’s like the least romantic thing you could compare anyone to! Where did they even learn those cringe-ass lines??? Even a little “want to explore the Earth/Universe more together?” would be better than this.
Okay, I know I didn’t talk much about Nina and Maggie, but like if we still have them, let’s have a more realistic, organic friendship and unrequited love going on in the background? Like, you can have a crush on someone but still offer a listening ear and advice from an outside perspective on their descriptions of their abusive relationship because you’re worried about them. Maggie can confess that she likes Nina romantically, but maybe Nina can clearly state to her after her breakup that she’s really not ready for another relationship yet and she honestly doesn’t even know much about Maggie. They agree to be friends, boom, communication shown clearly on screen with each other instead of being stated later with Crowley.
And I guess now if they’re more organic friends with Azicrow, (just) Maggie could push Crowley into communicating clearly with Az about his feelings, that rejection isn’t that bad if they have such a long-lasting friendship and that he should really tell Az to treat him better instead of usually expecting him to come around ngl
Also Bureaucracy working out without much fanfare in the end would help convince Crowley that the Husbands could also work out now that they’re on their own side
Metatron can do his little manipulative song and dance, sure. He can be like "I saw what you changed in Heaven, and we need more of that”
Divorce time! But like, with better dialogue, please. Az is a little shit for agreeing about something without discussing with Crowley first. Crowley should call him the heck out on that, cos recently, ever since Armageddon, it does feel like Az just expects him to come around eventually. Az should explain properly that Crowley is genuinely the most morally good person he knows who should be running heaven, even if he is a demon. Crowley tells him they don’t need Heaven and Hell, they’ve carved out their own side, he’d be miserable as an angel again and stuck within the inflexible confines of Heaven’s morality. Az says that he truly believes he could make Heaven better, so on and so forth. A proper debate basically, because lack of communication really kills me. They separate because of their differences in faith in changing Heaven and also Crowley feeling betrayed. If you really want extra angst, I guess Crowley could confess to Az and be like “clearly you don’t feel the same way about me” when Az still stubbornly sticks to his decision instead of leaving Heaven and Hell behind with Crowley.
Btw what the heck was up with Az’s “but you’re a demon!” and “we’re the good guys!” attitude here. He’s had 6000 years on Earth with Crowley and other humans and it’s like he’s never learnt a single thing!
Honestly this is just a non-exhaustive list of problems and potential suggestions for improvement for Season 2 written by a sick girlie who had to look up the episodes on wikipedia bc she forgot huge chunks of S2 a mere few days after watching it. Sure, I could watch the whole season again and note down every single thing, but I don’t have Prime Video nor time.
Thanks to my three watch party friends Aah, Hek and Jimin who helpfully read over and contributed ideas to this. It was fun watching it together, even if we didn’t like some of the decisions made.
If any of you have any other perspectives or clarifications that agree or disagree with whatever I said, feel free to have an open discussion, share resources, etc.
To a great Season 3!
Did you feel after watching GOmens S2 with your friends that this season could have been… better?
I was excited for S2 and I had some high expectations due to spoilers (yes, I am the kind of person to seek out spoilers to raise my personal excitement for the show). But after a watch party with some friends that had me gaslighting myself into denying the letdowns of this season (I was going through the first stage of grief okay), I’ve come around a few days later to bring a list of problems, gripes, and some suggestions for improvement for Season 2.
(EDIT: I reposted this bc I originally tagged Mr Gaiman according to my friend's suggestion. That was insensitive of me, I'm sorry. Thanks to the person who commented and knocked some sense into me, even if I did get a severe increase in heart rate and my hands were literally trembling after seeing your comment)
Mr. Gaiman, if you're reading this somehow, please don’t take any of this criticism as a personal attack. Like, you’re a prolific writer, we’re just 4 girls with opinions, so I don't think you'd really need to take much of these words to heart. I know I wouldn't.
And to the fandom, well, if you enjoyed S2, good for you! I enjoyed it too! If you enjoyed it in a way you understood but I didn't, that's fine too! This is just the perspective of like 4 girls on some writing decisions we found kinda weird. We all have opinions, we can express those opinions as long as we're not attacking anyone.
Also, spoilers for S2 of course.
Anyway, let’s get to it shall we, starting with the most controversial of decisions in episode 6!
Halo Ex Machina
Like for god’s sake if you wanna pull that out last-minute, at least show it being used in an earlier episode in a flashback from the war
Ineffable Bureaucracy
Aziraphale agreeing to be the Head Archangel to change heaven with Crowley
Ineffable Divorce
The purpose of the body swap in S1 feels undermined in S2. Like, that was to scare Heaven and Hell into thinking that they’ve grown so powerful that they’ve made their own side. Shouldn’t Heaven and Hell be like, a little more cautious with these two after agreeing to leave them alone?
The Divorce really feels like it’s written solely for the purpose of milking a certain reaction from the audience rather than a natural development for Azicrow’s relationship. Also, with the amount of times these two ‘break up’, it gets boring, okay
Nina and Maggie were just kinda,, there. I’m not quite sure what themes they’re here for, I was lowkey bored anytime they got on screen. Maybe Nina’s abusive relationship mirrors Aziraphale’s relationship with Heaven, but like, idk it’s really not the best mirror. I don’t care about them, okay, they didn’t need to be here and if they did, at least cut down a bit of their time please? The part at the end where they stayed to help was kinda ehhh, the part where they had to tell Crowley about his feelings was even more eh. I’m not sure why they cared so much to tell Crowley about it. I don't hate them, I just wish they could have been written better.
Crowley just waltzing into heaven. In S1 they were undercover and it’s so nervewracking. This time a bunch of demons just see him go up into heaven and don’t even question it. And then a bunch of archangels just come down the lift with him. Like what???
The miracle that hid Gabriel was kinda handwaved away? What was up with that
What was Bee’s plan with storming the bookshop. Wouldn’t that attract a lot of unnecessary attention from the demons and angels? Is discretion not a thing?
They never really explained what was up with Az’s bookshop and the vampire entering rules like???
Angels and demons really do feel like much less of a threat this season somehow
Guess who had “I’ll Follow You Into The Dark” on their playlist? Guess who didn’t follow someone into the dark.
So, I challenged myself to rewrite S2 to make the reveals a little less jarring than them all coming at you one after the other in episode 6 like Voltaire tormenting Candide.
Aziraphale’s desire to change the way Heaven is run, thus accepting Metatron’s offer
I know the Job episode was a thing, but again, that was only one scenario and not a consistent running theme throughout the season. The Victorian doctors do not count — that’s Aziraphale learning to become more flexible with his morality like Crowley. It doesn’t have anything to do with changing Heaven except maybe showing how much better Crowley is than everyone/j. The magic show definitely doesn’t count.
Also to all those ppl who say that Aziraphale has religious guilt or is going through religious trauma or smth along those lines… idk it feels more like they’re projecting than that being an actual thing shown by the show. If that was the intention, it doesn’t come across like it well enough
It might be believable that Az’s indoctrination by Heaven might cause him to think that being in charge would improve things, but like,, that needs to be actually shown in the show. Show us his doubts after the end of the world. Give us better foreshadowing of his concerns over the past 6000 years, how he’s seen Crowley struggle with being a demon/how he imagines being a demon is like/how heaven has indoctrinated him. Otherwise it’s like he’s learnt nothing over these past 6000 years!
Gabe and Bee’s relationship
This really suffers by being revealed only at the end because the way they act seems suddenly out of character of how we expect them to. We’re all left kinda unsure if they’re actually in love or even know what love is.
An earlier reveal of their relationship and maybe some Bee/Jim interactions in earlier episodes would help with a more gradual acceptance of expectations vs reality
Also, would it kill to have one close-up of the fly? Or even like, Aziraphale swatting the fly away as it flies into his face when he opens the box? That thing is so tiny it’s no wonder it’s so easily missed. Please, I’m myopic
Divorce
I want Crowley to snap so bad at Aziraphale. And with better dialogue than “no nightingales”. I know it’s a reference, but surely we can do better than this!
Aziraphale really caught the idiot ball this season in the most narratively unsatisfying way, and if it weren’t for Michael Sheen playing him it would be even more annoying.
A lot of the coffeeshop/recordshop AU
The whole storming the bookshop thing. What was Bee’s plan really
The angel-demon miracle. The damn thing was what attracted heaven’s attention anyway and in the end it was just handwaved away? Let’s toss it out, and by extension, we’ll have to toss out… (checks notes) the Archangels’ visit to the bookshop, lying about getting Nina and Maggie together and the further matchmaking attempts for them, Constable Muriel, Shax’s storming of the bookshop, and god knows what else.