Why did they make crowley and aziraphale gay
In the near show you, dear Nichers, will likely be seeing a lot about the BBC/Amazon mini-series of Good Omens. You probably already have—it’s actually a little scary how many non-internet people I comprehend who’ve asked me if I’ve heard about “this brand-new show” like I don’t have every page of the novel inscribed in my brain forever. There’s just a few quick things I, a longtime and vocal fan of the novel, want to form sure everyone knows before it begins.
- Good Omens is a book by Sir Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman about the apocalypse, published in 1990.
- It is a terribly comical book.
- It is also deeply moving.
But all this is besides the point, because, most importantly:
- It is gay.
Yes, yes, the kid Antichrist and his friends are cute, there’s some very clever Douglas Adamsian narrative, and friendship saving the day always gets me a teary-eyed, but let’s be clear: I’m here for the angel and demon in love, as are at least half of us, judging by the AO3 stats.
And honestly, valued Nichers, that’s what you’re here for, right? To understand if it’s gay? Well congratulations to you.
Let us also be clear
I'm just going to speak it: I liked the Good Omens miniseries more than the novel. It's sacrilege among Book Folks, my people, to confess this, but sometimes recasting an old story into a new medium improves the experience. (Remember Legally Blonde, the Amanda Brown novel? Of course you don't.) There are several reasons why I preferred the show, but mostly it's because the novel didn't have Aziraphale and Crowley's queer-as-hell relationship — unarguably the best part — as the main focus.
So when I state Good Omens the entertainment is "better" than Good Omens the book, what I mean is, it's gayer.
Good Omens isn't distinct in its having fans who read queerness into the text. Fandoms hold been doing this for years: Supernatural immediately comes to mind, as does The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. What does make Good Omens unique is that this fan-created queer admire story — a fairy tale for the conclude of the world — pretty much came factual when the story was adapted from the page to the screen.
Consider the standard one-sentence summary of the miniseries, which goes like this: In the final days leading up to the final battle between Heaven and Hell, the angel Aziraphale and the
Good Omens, Queerbaiting And Death Of The Author - Quill’s Scribbles
I confess this is the most reluctant I’ve ever been to note a Scribble. When this topic came up, I recollect just groaning and putting my brain in my hands because I knew that, due to the nature of what I care for to write about on this blog and the truth that I’m an out and out biromantic demisexual queerbo, people would be asking me to contribute to the discourse. And honestly I don’t particularly want to. I don’t get to enjoy many films and TV shows anymore thanks to the industry doing their very finest to ruin everything they touch. Can’t I just observe one good TV show without existence dragged into some ideological battle?
Okay. Assume I can’t really put this off any longer.
On the 31st May, the long awaited adaptation of Good Omens was released on Amazon Video. I thought it was quite good. Not perfect. There are some things I could criticise, but overall it was a worthy adaptation of the provider material and it was very enjoyable to watch. And that seems to be the general consensus with both critics and fans. However over the past couple of months since its release, a ‘controversy’ began to emerge wi
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Dear Mr Gaiman,
I know the topic of queerness in Good Omens has been debated to death so please feel free to totally ignore this letter :)
I just wanted to ask you about the labelling, or lack thereof, of Crowley and Aziraphale. As an aroace person myself, it makes me a little uncomfortable that many fans are content to accept that they can’t be gay because they’re not human, but are still happy to give them the asexual label. As if queer identities are somehow more inherently ‘human’ than ace identities. And forgetting that there is a colossal overlap in those identities, since there are plenty of gay asexuals out there.
I know it’s not intentional, but it’s difficult to not view their unlabelled, ‘ineffable’ love in light of queer cinema’s historical context, which for so many years has resorted to queer coding, because queer love was itself considered ‘unmentionable’.
Thus, my question: would you ever consider labelling Aziraphale and Crowley? Even just as queer? Or would you rather their queerness remains completely up to meaning, death of the storyteller style?
I think either is valid, and will not take away from my excitement for s2❤️
Consensus around the new Amazon Prime Good Omens series is that it’s a rather static adaptation of its source material, and that David Tennant and Michael Sheen absolutely sparkle in the lead roles. I think this is correct! I’m not going to get into my broader thoughts on the show, which have been covered adequately by reviewers elsewhere, but I perform want to talk a leetle bit about queerbaiting and the central partnership between Crowley and Aziraphale. Here’s what the command actors and the journalist have to say about that relationship:
Michael Sheen:
They’re both very bonded and related anyway, because of the two of them having this relationship through history – but also because angels are beings of love, so it’s inevitable that he would value Crowley. It helped that loving David is very easy to do.
David Tennant:
From being the Doctor, I’m sure you’ve had your fair share of various theories being thrown at you. Like, for instance, this romantic theory about Crowley and Aziraphale.
Well, it is a love story, I think. I ponder every buddy movie, which is what this essentially is, is a affectionate story, subtextually.
Some are more overt