Now We’ve Had This Bi-generation I Just Think We Should Go Full Unhinged And Have Gold Tooth Turn Into

Just thinking about Wild Blue Yonder and the Welsh tradition of Mari Lywd (the horse skull that visits your door), and the Doctor treating the no-things like evil spirits with the salt and then being worried about invoking a superstition at the End of the Universe…

…and then there’s the captain of the ship, literally a horse skull, knocking at the door, invoking this tradition that is shrouded in mystery and is thought to have been originally meant as a way of warding off evil spirits…

For Halloween in their South Downs Cottage, Aziraphale gives out full size candy bars and Crowley gives out potatoes.

Still stuck on how Aziraphale ate that meat like he was starving. Like he’d been starved for millennia, and he hadn’t even known it, because he’d never once been fed. But we know they don’t have to eat (nor sleep, etc.), so what he’d been starved for is pleasure. Being present in his body, feeling the joys and longings it could feel. Understanding what taste buds were made for. He hadn’t known; he’d never learned to miss it.

Now imagine what a kiss has done to him.

I think my favourite line in season 2 is crowley's "he's far too pure of heart to be anybody's bit on the side" because any time we get to hear the way crowley talks about aziraphale to other people is a joy, but also it's just so genuine and full of so much love. he's not speaking about aziraphale with any agenda, he's just speaking off the cuff. it's ridiculously sweet. it's also hilarious because it's crowley's immediate reaction to nina suggesting that they're casually sleeping together and crowley's like, um no, we're not, but fyi if we were I would be treating him right!

Who else has seen One Specific Episode of Rab C Nesbitt?

I'm seeing some confusion out and about over the title A Companion to Owls (generally along the lines of 'what have owls got to do with it???'), so I'd like to offer my interpretation (with a general disclaimer that the Bible and particularly the Old Testament are damn complicated and I'm not able to address every nuance in a fandom tumblr post, okay? Okay):

It's a phrase taken from the Book of Job. Here's the quote in full (King James version):

When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness. My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me. I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation. I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls. --(Job 30:29)

Job is describing the depths of his grief, but also, with that last line, his position in the web of providence.

Throughout the Old Testament, owls are a recurring symbol of spiritual devastation. Deuteronomy 4:17 - Isaiah 34:11 - Psalm 102: 3 - Jeremiah 50: 39...just to name a few (there's more). The general shape of the metaphor is this: owls are solitary, night-stalking creatures, that let out either mournful cries or terrible shrieks, that inhabit the desolate places of the world...and (this is important) they are unclean.

They represent a despair that is to be shunned, not pitied, because their condition is self-inflicted. You defied God (so the owl signifies), and your punishment is...separation. From God, from others, from the world itself. To call and call and never, ever receive an answer.

Your punishment is terrible, tormenting loneliness.

(and that exact phrase, "tormenting loneliness," doesn't come from me...I'm pulling it from actual debate/academia on this exact topic. The owls, and what they are an omen for. Oof.)

To call yourself a 'companion to owls,' then, is to count yourself alongside perhaps the saddest of the damned --not the ones who defy God out of wickedness or ignorance, and in exile take up diabolical ends readily enough...but the ones who know enough to mourn what they have lost.

So, that's how the title relates to Job: directly. Of course, all that is just context. The titular "companion to owls," in this case, isn't Job at all.

Because this story is about Aziraphale.

The thing is that Job never actually defied God at all, but Aziraphale does, and he does so fully believing that he will fall.

He does so fully believing that he's giving in to a temptation.

He's wrong about that, but still...he's realized something terrifying. Which is that doing God's will and doing what's right are sometimes mutually exclusive. Even more terrifying: it turns out that, given the choice between the two...he chooses what's right.

And he's seemingly the only angel who does. He's seemingly the only angel who can even see what's wrong.

Fallen or not, that's the kind of knowledge that...separates you.

(Whoooo-eeeeee, tormenting loneliness!!!)

Aziraphale is the companion.

...I don't think I need to wax poetic about Aziraphale's loneliness and grappling with devotion --I think we all, like, get it, and other people have likely said it better anyway. So, one last thing before I stop rambling:

Check out Crowley's glasses.

(screenshots from @seedsofwinter)

Crowley is the owl.

Crowley is the goddamn owl.

Crowley kissing Aziraphale in this moment of pain and betrayal is so telling as to how hurt he really is and how unsalvageable he thinks their relationship is. Because Crowley has always respected Aziraphale’s boundaries, always followed the pace Aziraphale set. Crowley has always slowed down for him. This time he didn’t.

EXACTLY the kind of story we need, not only nowadays - but any day, actually.

Just finished the panel with Rich Keeble at Ineffable Con.

He told the most hilarious story about him, David, Michael and Jon Hamm all sitting around playing Wordle whilst waiting for their scenes.

David admitted he didn't get it that day, defeated, and went off to set, popping in his contacts on the way. The rest of them continued to sit there on their phones, brows furrowed in concentration as they try to solve it.

Jon Hamm gets it in four, then goes off to set, leaving Rich with Michael who is still frowning at his phone.

Then Michael suddenly jumps up and shouts victoriously, something along the lines of "YES!! Got it in THREE!! I've got to go and tell David... I'm sure he won't mind me interrupting his scene."

And David, deadpan, just sticks up his middle finger🖕

So basically we've learned that the version of themselves we saw in Staged is EXACTLY who they are 🤣

The cottage will be Crowley’s “stars” because he will learn how to do everything himself there and he will be fixing stuff because he likes to know how and besides it’s fun. He’s an engineer after all.

He will be hanging stars again, when he will be hanging lights around the house for Christmas with Aziraphale gazing adoringly at him and taking too many pictures. And he will put the star on top of the Christmas Tree.

That childish happiness? Back on his face from the simple joy of freedom. Of building again - their home.

Aziraphale will still need to be rescued - or his appliances will, after all, Crowley I can’t finish baking if the mixer won’t start working again! Oh to have a husband who fixes the connection in moments and rescues the cake. Crowley will quickly realise that Aziraphale actually enjoys some of those appliances breaking once in a while.

Aziraphale will pretend he cares about fixing cars but mostly he will just learn names of the things so he knows what to give Crowley when he says “pass me the screwdriver” as he works underneath The Bentley. Aziraphale is there for the sweat, dirt and Crowley without a T-shirt, really.

Aziraphale will look at Crowley’s happy face and be so happy that he finally knows exactly how to bring that joy he had as an Angel back on his face.

Freedom. And them.

I am so insane about the Job arc.

God says, "I will destroy Job's children," and Aziraphale says, "How did he wrong you?"

God says, "I will destroy Job's children," and Aziraphale says, "How will you make it right?"

God says, "I will destroy Job's children," and Aziraphale says, "Gosh, I don't doubt you know what you are doing and all, but maybe we could slow things down a little and talk about this? And it's essential to the divine plan? Are we sure?"

Crowley says, "I will destroy Job's children," and Aziraphale looks him in the eye and says, "No, you won't."