Greetings Shippers welcome back and I hear you all, you want the ineffable husbands.
Aziraphale and Crowley have had quite the resurgence of interest in their ship thanks
to the release of Amazon’s 2019 adaptation which translated the angel and demon to the
small screen in a way that served to introduce mand fans to the 6000 year slow burn for the
first time and send them bookwards, to remind some of their love for these two or just as
a finally moment for some who had been onboard all along. We will give the ineffable husbands
their day and discuss their pairing in full as well as the variances between book and
series and how that has affected the fics one will find, but firstly let us discuss
what many have dubbed the good omens fandom renaissance by examining this fandoms history.
If you’re enjoying the burst of attention on good omens hit that like button
First off before we get started exciting news we here at shippers guide are launching a
new channel casually comics, fun upbeat and casual comic reviews so if you love comics
and keeping it casual head on over and subscribe. First episode is about the fabulous teamup
between spider-man and superman yes you heard that right.
Now for us shippers let’s talk good omens.
Good omens is a short novel and co project between Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett who
actually split the work fairly evenly and very much enjoyed working together. With pratchett
saying of the process I think this is an honest account of the process of writing Good Omens.
It was fairly easy to keep track of because of the way we sent discs to one another, and
because I was Keeper of the Official Master Copy I can say that I wrote a bit over two
thirds of Good Omens. However, we were on the phone to each other every day, at least
once.
In the end, it was this book done by two guys, who shared the money equally and did it for
fun and wouldn't do it again for a big clock
The accounts match up with gaiman stating of the process We were both living in England
when we wrote it. At an educated guess, although neither of us ever counted, Terry probably
wrote around 60,000 "raw" and I wrote 45,000 "raw" words of Good Omens, with, on the whole,
Terry taking more of the plot with Adam and the Them in, and me doing more of the stuff
that was slightly more tangential to the story, except that broke down pretty quickly and
when we got towards the end we swapped characters so that we'd both written everyone by the
time it was done, by the end of it, neither of us was entirely certain who had written
what. It was indeed plotted in long daily phone calls, and we would post floppy disks
(and this was back in 1988 when floppy disks really were pretty darn floppy) back and forth.[6]
The book was published in 1990 and was quickly embraced by a variety of fantasy genre fans
and also to shippers who were captivated by the deep and all encompassing friendship between
angel aziraphale and demon crowley. Characters who were opposites in some ways and yet so
fundamentally similar in others with shared loves of earthly pleasures and a belief in
free will. Characters who could ponder deep philosophical ideas one moment and be completely
farcical the next. Characters who shared a relationship that was relatable to so many
on a variety of levels. And the ship was born and has continued on with dedicated fans and
new ones coming on board as they discovered the novel however over time the flow of fics
and worked slowed. Not only because of how long it had been since the book was released
but because it was a book and book fandoms traditionally tend to be smaller than ones
based off of a visual medium as many require the seeing of the characters chemistry rather
than the extrapolation required from a book. Though some prefer book fandom or bookdom
for just that reasons it allows more room to explore and some find the characterisations
and moments more vivid as a result, though it can be a harder sell as can books in general.
Though of course there are exception book fandoms and when a book fandom explodes it
tends to do so with a longevity and ferocity that can rival any visual based fandom.
However when a work remains more niche it can be harder to maintain a highly active
vocal fanbase epecially pre the internet as getting in touch with other book fans could
be difficult. However good Omens arose at the very beginning of the digital fandom era,
indeed some produced their first fics on floppys.
So some fans had accepted that this was a the type of fandom good omens was quick to
grab those who stumbled upon it and an important part of the fandoms history particularly involving
an intriguing twist on wingfic. Howver, all that changed with the announcement of an adaptation
a transference to visual media that opened up the work to a whole array of new fans who
have begun creating their own works and been pleased to find a pre-existing and welcoming
fandom even if there is a difference between book and movie characterisations which is
neither a positive or a negative simply a fact. This has been dubbed by some fans the
good omens renaissance. A pheonomenon that occurs when a fandom gets a second wind an
influx of new life and sometimes this can propel it onto firmer or more accessible ground,
as certainly seems to be the case with this amazon adapatation for a variety of reasons.
One of which is Neil Gaiman’s willingness to discuss fandom and shipping something he’s
never exactly shied away from but with the modern era has come a new boldness that he
has risen to meet while still maintaining his own vision. Though this is hardly surprising
as Gaiman himself has a background in fanficition. An early adopter of tumblr he is still on
there and even had some fun things to say about a certain suggestive “wrestling”
statue located in crowley’s apartment stating The statue in crowley’s flat it represents
said the production designer michael ralph good and evil wrestling and evil triumphing,
are you certain they’re wrestling I asked.
Gaiman has long been open about his history with fanfiction even responding to someone
who was less in favour of the concept in the following 2017 exchange Do you like fanfiction?
I'm pretty against it. I think it's an insult to the author. "hey so I took what you wrote
and, well, I made it all about me and what I want" It's not how stories get told.
To which gaiman replied I won the Hugo Award for a piece of Sherlock Holmes/H. P. Lovecraft
fanfiction, so I'm in favour. He is also very much in favour of fanfiction being a space
where fans can answer details and questions for themselves responding to a question posed
on tumblr about whether or nor crowley and aziraphale had met cleopatra he stated the
following I can’t answer that, or rather, there’s no point to my answering it. That’s
why you write fanfiction: to tell those stories, to make up those details. That’s not something
I answer yes or no to and it doesn’t matter if I do or don’t. You’re the one with
the “What If…?” or the “Wouldn’t it be interesting if…?” that starts a
story here. (You’ll get a lot of answers to questions
you didn’t know you have when the TV series comes out. It’s your call whether you decide
that the TV series is canon or only the book. They rarely contradict each other, but one
might exclude fictions or create fictions that the other wouldn’t…)
This is all not only endearing for many a shipper who are more used to being told off
by creators than understood by them, but also open an interesting conversation of what separates
fanfiction from official legitimate literature. Gaiman implies that he is aware the line is
thin and many of the divisions artificial. That being legitimacy the difference between
a fanfic and an inventive re imaging is simply at times whether one is published or not,
it is that official publication that gives the aura of legitimacy as fanfiction by definition
is fiction written by a fan of, and featuring characters from, a particular TV series, movie,
etc.but more broadly it is taking characters not of ones own and working with them in a
fictional setting. Many official works do this in fact so do many of gaiman’s works
one could regard good omens as biblical fanfiction, whether or not one takes offence to this has
a lot to do with their views on fanfiction which are often negative as fanfic tends to
be labelled as a perjorative synonymous with bad writing however that is not the case there
are good fanfics and bad ones just as there are good and bad published works. Fanfic still
lives in a world of being a dirty secret, a sign of obsession and no life however should
one get the same work published it can be viewed as brilliant. Some attempt to gender
this issue however there are numerous published reimagined works from across the spectrum
as there are many panned fanfics and adaptations, it really comes down to whether fans embrace
the work and the confidence the author and publisher have in it, and what/who the characters
and topic are. For example fairytales or myth will be much less likely to be viewed as fanfic
than a twist on a more modern published work. And some simply don’t question something
if it is official just by virtue of it being so.
By embracing fanfiction it
not only makes gaiman more understanding of his fanbase and able to answer their questions
even if he does not agree with their views but adds a layer of humbleness to works that
could be found to be pretentious of course some find them pretentious anyway.
Gaiman has been asked about Crowley and Aziraphale particularly since the 2019 series with one
exchange going as follows So, @neilhimself, they're gay, right? :D They’re an angel
and a demon, not male humans.Okay, but they love each other, right? :D Absolutely.
Sweet, although it would be quite hard to come out of this work series or book not knowing
these two love each other very deeply, what kind of love it is may be up for debate but
it is a pure real love.
Which is part of what has made this renaissance surge on so quickly many fans are surprised
how fast they have become attached to this characters and their relationship but that
is a testament pun intended to how strongly their interactions speak to the depth of their
bond even from the outset, only strengthened by the very real ying and yang, star crossed
themes that are cleverly subverted.
The actors for their part feel that this is very much the tale of a romance with sheen
stating I thought, what happens if you’re someone who just loves things, if you spend
all your time with your supposed enemy. How does that work? And then eventually I just
found myself, as Aziraphale, kind of falling in love with Crowley. And then that became
kind of interesting to explore that beast.” which definitely comes through in
the performance.
This open discussion has also helped fuel the growth
of this boom, for while fanfic is still looked down upon it is paradoxically more discussed
than ever and purported to be celebrated on many nerd based sites though many fans feel
their are being exploited for clicks rather than out of a genuine interest in the subculture
itself. Though people’s motivations are varied so it would be disingenuous to paint
all outlets with the same brush.
What is certain is that the ineffable husbands are thriving the tags are glorious, crowley’s
eyes are loved as are these two soft boys, dorks in love or however these two are bing
defined the 6000 year slow burn has definitely come to an end. How long the boom will last
remains to be seen but for the time being it is a great time to be a fan of these two
and their pairing, as well as the work, Gaiman’s given some really sweet interviews about honouring
terry pratchett with the series.
Now of course not everyone is a fan as with all things but we will get into that when
we discuss the ineffable husbands in depth.
For now are you enjoying the burst of ineffable husbands? If you’re a shipper did you just
get on board or having you been sailing the seas for some time? If you;re a book fan did
you feel the series did these two justice? Why or why not? Share all your thoughts down
below.
Thanks so much for watching there are as always more videos coming soon, don’t forget to
like share comment and subscribe. Special thanks to all my patrons names on the side
for helping to make these videos possible. I will see you all again when I can and until
then let’s get to that outro for there are as many ships out there as there are stars
in the sky.