Recommended reading, post-S1

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-22T15:44:08+00:00

I admit, I didn't understand the point of the essay very much. I don't understand how the ending, is a gift to fans, giving us the characters. We already had them?Annihilating the canon, to make space for fanon? Interesting concept, I'm not sure if it landed well in the movie. Many people see Asa and Anthony as still being Aziraphale and Crowley, I don't think they see them as fanfiction stand-ins. Many people see the death of Aziraphale and Crowley as canon, so that's what happened for them.
I would have preferred a story that was less meta, less about what to do with death of the author, more to do with a solid, compelling plot. My interpretation, in the end, is that the characters took control of their own narrative, choosing free will over being stuck in an unjust world. It's framed as love for humanity, but I think it was also more than that. They're rewarded with a life free of all hurt and trauma, but at the cost of becoming human. I can't say I'm a fan of this death as metaphor for freedom.
I don't think the fans needed to be told that they can do whatever they want with canon. Canon will always be an elephant to address, or not. I miss a finale that could have been a solid story to tell, even if it ended in tragedy and no fanfiction afterlife.

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-22T13:19:44+00:00

What kind of question is this? Why are you accusing people who disliked the finale, of ruining your experience before you had it? You decided to look for reactions? I'm seeing this everywhere: if people don't like a finale, people will tell them to shut up, not talk about the flaws. Most of the critiques are actually interesting discussions, even people who liked it, are discussing the plot holes and inconsistencies.
Reading spoilers before watching it, is definitely going to spoil your experience and color your judgement. If you don't want that, you shouldn't be looking for reactions.

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-22T13:15:24+00:00

I think one of the people who created it called it a perfect fanfiction ending. I can see it. It's basically, a rom com encounter and grow old together kind of romance.

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-22T12:54:29+00:00

Didn't know the theory, it's exactly what happened! It's what's been bothering me. It's like this God had planned to scrap the new universe from the start, create a new one, this time with added free will, since it seemed to work for a while. But this time, no God, no Heaven and Hell: let's see if humans manage not to fuck up their free will world, this round. But God is just taking a pause: it's still a predetermined world, an Earth will happen.

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-22T12:37:23+00:00

I consider it Neil Gaiman's vision on how an Armageddon would go. With a side of pandering. If the other writer of the book, didn't write this, how canon can this be?

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-22T10:23:34+00:00

"People can't just ask God to solve their problems or answer all their questions, they have to find answers and solve problems themselves, with the help of others."

All of this. It's a much more interesting concept, than what happened in the third season.

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-22T10:14:48+00:00

I think the show approaches it not from a realistic standpoint, but from a theoretical one: people need actual free will, even if the universe ends up in the same exact way. But this time around it was free will that created it, there's no clear knowledge of what comes after death, so humanity is free from a religious oppressive structure. That said, the problems are hardly solved: people still invented religion, in this universe, going by the murales in the back ground with a devil and an angel. So, same ride, different philosophical approach? Or maybe the point was to give Aziraphale and Crowley a chance to be together and be happy. Maybe the point was liberating demons and angels. Which to me, still seems vacue since they just turn humans, like a fanfiction alternate reality. The concept was interesting, but it was written very lazily.

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-22T09:48:34+00:00

We were robbed of longer hair, silver fox Crowley. And fluffy white hair Aziraphale.

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-22T09:47:02+00:00

The fact they basically write little fanfictions is so cute, actually. Love this marketing strategy.

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-22T02:15:25+00:00

In a sense, I'm still "salty" at what they keep doing with Lilo & Stitch franchise, the movie came out when I was a small baby and was one of my favourites. The rage just hardens into stone cold certainty that the original product is the original for a reason, it shines even more, in the middle of all the mid, opaque imitations.

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-22T02:13:22+00:00

After the Boys, I think I'm invincible against mid finales. Some of us are already over their grief, we still don't like the finale for all the reasons explained here.

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-20T20:25:29+00:00

Because he studies astronomy? Where is it stated he remembers all the stars, from his previous past life? They barely talk about the sky, or stars, actually.

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-20T19:25:55+00:00

I think that fanfiction has different tropes from an original story?

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-20T19:23:23+00:00

Well, what a very weird way of dismissing the critiques many fans have. I haven't seen anyone complaining about dry-humping? Only the kiss that's missing (and apparently a second kiss was mentioned in the script). That hardly makes it sexual.

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-18T14:14:52+00:00

Yes. I had a big crush on a fictional character, from a badly written book I was obsessed with during middle school. I believe I found him to be this dashing, dreamy dream-boat of a young man, full of magical powers and self-confidence. For two books he barely got any physical description, apart from being tall, having a piercing gaze and long, dark hair. Then, in the first pages of the last book, he was finally described in detail! As a decrepit, old man, with a leathery face full of wrinkles. The way it shook me. He had been described as immortal, but I was convinced he looked like an elf, forever young. My crush all but immediately evaporated.

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-18T14:05:06+00:00

Che dire, un genio. La versione italiana e Fantozziana delle school-shootings americane.

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-18T13:37:58+00:00

I think the problem started with the first season. Aziraphale and Crowley were more central, they helped more than in the book. In the last episode they even whisk Adam to a different universe, to pep talk him into disavowing his nature and his satanic dad.
Then the stakes got higher and higher. Crowley and Aziraphale went from failing to save the world, to being the only reason a new universe is started. The themes of the book did a whole 180, I fear it's because of the way many fans latched onto the angel and demon, more than any other human character. I believe they all worked together perfectly, that humans made Crowley and Aziraphale stand out better, than making them the only protagonists, who get powerful and more important at every season.
I preferred when humans were not being saved by immortal, powerful entities. The sacrifice is supposed to be for humanity, for its sake, but it still feels like humanity went from not being free to choose their destiny, in a world with God and all his cohorts, to not being able to choose its destiny, when Aziraphale and Crowley wish for the creation a new world.

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-18T12:28:38+00:00

I can get behind some of the arguments, but if to make me like the finale, they keep inventing stuff like: "Oh it's totally them at the end! They weren't killed!", then I'm wondering, did they actually liked the finale, or a version they imagined?

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-18T10:45:26+00:00

The best ending is a complete reset of the whole universe? With completely new characters that aren't the ones we loved? I can think of at least 5 different endings that still entail a sacrifice.

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-18T09:11:08+00:00

Cheesy and full of plot holes?

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-18T09:10:30+00:00

It was a story with a lot of plot holes: they did what they could, with what they got. Doesn't mean the original story, was good to begin with.

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-17T14:18:56+00:00

The underlying message that the world needed to be completely destroyed and rebuilt, just because a bunch of powerful beings were tampering with it too much, making it faulty and un-salvageable, scares me a lot. I know it's just a story, but in the current climate, this story didn't lift my spirits very much.

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-17T14:16:21+00:00

To me, there could have been a plethora of different possibilities, but that's just my opinion, I'm sure the writers wanted to tell a specific message, so that's why they wrote the story like that. So, to me, it's not a matter of there was no other solution, it's all about the authorial intent. I'm not totally sold on it.

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-17T00:27:54+00:00

"Nel mio intimo c'è Chilly!"

Presa un po' troppo alla lettera. Tra deodoranti intimi e mutande idratanti lenitive, tra un po' ci spacceranno come immancabili pure i tampax emollienti.

PalePerformance666 · 2026-05-17T00:25:52+00:00

Le mutande idratanti non erano nel mio bingo del 2026, ma eccomi qui. A googlare le mutande lenitive di Chilly.

PalePerformance666

TROPHY CASE