I <3 my humanist show

[promethia_tenk]

Watch on YouTube

(The Eden Disorder, by Naumaxia on YouTube.)

I love everything about Good Omens, but if I had to choose one thing, one single thing, it would be that Crowley is the Serpent of Eden. The show means nothing without it.

Do you ever think about how Aziraphale is a huge fan of Crowley's work? The collective output of knowledge and creativity of the human race is the direct result of the Fall from Eden.


The bookshop is a sort of post-fall Eden. Of course it's a haven. It also has a world tree in its center, though the summoning circle on the floor up through the cupola:




And all the fruits of knowledge strewn everywhere, abundant. The newly innocent Gabriel, like a reverse Adam, comes instinctively to the bookshop. "Who told you I was naked?" he asks Aziraphale. (cf: God saying "Who told you you were naked?" in Genesis.) He loves the books, but does not understand them. Crowley nearly makes him fall too (out the window) before deciding he can't. The Serpent of Eden, everybody:



But, and here's the crucial bit: the bookshop doesn't exist if Crowley isn't a demon. "If you don't change [the Bentley] back right now, I'm going to start selling people books! In fact, I might even give some away!" he threatens Aziraphale. Crowley lost his demon shell after subverting the apocalypse: both the job itself and the foreboding flat that went with it. What he has left of that identity is the black, low-slung, speeding Bentley and his garden of emotional trauma in the back seat. (Notice how he keeps the plants away from Aziraphale, only taking them into the bookshop when Aziraphale is out. Of course they belong in the bookshop: what's an Eden without the garden? Or its snake.)

A number of people have noted the change in color grading this season, and its primary effect, besides being just generally gorgeous, seems to be to highlight the similarities between Crowley's coloring and that of the bookshop. Most take it as a commentary on Aziraphale's preferences which, of course, it is: here's an excellent meta on the season as nesting fic (!) with an extended analysis of the bookshop coloring. A week or two ago I was watching especially the scenes of Crowley minding the shop while Aziraphale is in Edinburg, appreciating how harmonious he looks there. But if I'm honest with myself, what I was thinking wasn't 'Crowley looks like he belongs in the bookshop.' It was that Crowley is the bookshop:








Or its animating spirit, perhaps?:



Aziraphale may match the antique style of the place, but in shot after shot, he stands out against it (not as harshly as Muriel in her stark white, but it's still a contrast), while Crowley melts into the background like warmed chocolate:



Here's the thing, though: Aziraphale was ready to give up the bookshop. He was ready to give up the bookshop to make Crowley an angel again. That is indeed the trade-off, though he misunderstood cause and effect: the bookshop doesn't exist if Crowley isn't a demon. Aziraphale thought, rather sensibly, that the books are, at the end of the day, just things. And nothing last forever. What he didn't realize is the bookshop is everything.

Comments

[owlboy]

i love the idea of crowley being the animating spirit of the bookshop. thinking abt aziraphale saying ''but my bookshop...'' and staring out the window after crowley.


i dunno if aziraphale's decision at the end is as naive as it seems. thinking abt this bit from the book:

-

occasionally, serious men in dark suits would come calling and suggest, very politely, that perhaps he'd like to sell the shop itself so that it could be turned into the kind of retail outlet more suited to the area. Sometimes they'd offer cash, in large rolls of grubby fifty-pound notes. Or, sometimes, while they were talking, other men in dark glasses would wander around the shop shaking their heads and saying how inflammable paper was, and what a fire trap he had here.

And Aziraphale would nod and smile and say that he'd think about it. And then they'd go away. And they'd never come back.

Just because you're an angel doesn't mean you have to be a fool.

-

think of the metatron as the mobster ''politely'' suggesting aziraphale give up his shop. and aziraphale's psycho smile at the end is bc he knows what he's going to do to ensure he never comes back.

[promethia_tenk]

i love the idea of crowley being the animating spirit of the bookshop. thinking abt aziraphale saying ''but my bookshop...'' and staring out the window after crowley.
*wibble*

think of the metatron as the mobster ''politely'' suggesting aziraphale give up his shop. and aziraphale's psycho smile at the end is bc he knows what he's going to do to ensure he never comes back.
!!!! I LOOOOOOOVE it.

[owlboy]

>>*wibble*

it's a bit The Doctor's Wife-y, innit

>>!!!! I LOOOOOOOVE it.

yeah i just don't buy the ''relapse'' etc theories that are floating around fandom. the implied 2nd option to the metatron's job offer is ''or we can kill you'', and veiled threats are aziraphale's ''fuck you'' button

[promethia_tenk]

it's a bit The Doctor's Wife-y, innit
Honestly, I am never truly content in a fandom until I've been able to anthropomorphize a building. Identity boxes are the premiere tier of symbolic devices to me. They just . . . *makes gesturing motions into and out of my core* It's especially juicy when you feel like the character and the box are very physically connected--as I rather feel they are here. Like things done to the box are done to the character. It's all very ~somatically affecting. The best symbolism really reaches into your guts and rearranges them, like space warping around you.

yeah i just don't buy the ''relapse'' etc theories that are floating around fandom. the implied 2nd option to the metatron's job offer is ''or we can kill you'', and veiled threats are aziraphale's ''fuck you'' button
I kind of came to accept the relapse-y theories after reading enough meta about it, but I never liked them. I latched onto the 'Aziraphale is hurting Crowley deliberately to protect him' theory immediately.

[masakochan]

until I've been able to anthropomorphize a building

Yesss- anthropomorphized buildings is a trope I've thoroughly enjoyed when stumbling across it in fic for just about any piece of media I've ever been into.

[elisi]

think of the metatron as the mobster ''politely'' suggesting aziraphale give up his shop. and aziraphale's psycho smile at the end is bc he knows what he's going to do to ensure he never comes back.
Oooh, I like it. Also did you see this post?

Ugh, I have TWo Tumblr posts to post, but tags are my enemy. :(

[promethia_tenk]

Oooh, I like it. Also did you see this post?
Your link is literally to Owl's reblog of it . . .

Ugh, I have TWo Tumblr posts to post, but tags are my enemy. :(
How so? You just kind of do them?

[elisi]

How so? You just kind of do them?
Clever chatty Tumblr tags are my enemy.

[promethia_tenk]

Then just do function ones; they're not gonna kick you off the site.

[elisi]

I just envy ppl those skillz. :(

[promethia_tenk]

As do I, but I suspect it comes with practice.

[promethia_tenk]

I have learned you can edit the tags after you post. Maybe that helps?

[elisi]

Eh, it's just me being annoyed at a lack of skillz. I should just post it and not try to be clever.

[promethia_tenk]

You already were clever; the rest is just blandishments.

[elisi]

Awww, shucks.

ETA: Well it's posted. And HILARIOUSLY Tumblr has sent me a message that I have posts 100 posts??? 99% will be re-blogs.

[promethia_tenk]

YAY IT'S BEAUTIFUL.

Excuse me while I go wash my dishes and die inside. In the best way, of course.

[elisi]

Yeah, I had to go eat as soon as I had posted! Saw that you re-blogged with added thoughts, so now I shan't bother. :)

[promethia_tenk]

Clearly we are creatures of the old school, thinking things have to be in one coherent presentation. When Tumblr provides the perfect format for this very back and forth.

[owlboy]

i cant believe how old that icon is now

[promethia_tenk]

And yet still perfect.

[owlboy]

i made that post :]

[promethia_tenk]

Even funnier.

[owlboy]

i dont think a day has gone by since s1 where i havent thought abt that scene

[elisi]

Well that tells you what sort of week I had. ::facepalm::

[owlboy]

lmao (pets)