I Wanna Talk About The Angel Who Would Be Crowley.

I wanna talk about The Angel Who Would Be Crowley.

Because I had a certain set of expectations, which got thoroughly trashed in the first five minutes of S2, and my genuine response is, "Oh, fuck, yup. You're right. That's WAY better."

Looking around at GO fandom, I'm not alone in this. So let's talk about it.

Basically, a lot of people (myself included) believed that he was a high-ranking angel, and therefore as chilly and remote as every other powerful angel we'd seen at that point. We pictured Crowley-To-Be as long-haired, regal and imposing --and the fanart at the time reflected this. I'd link some if Tumblr didn't hate links.

Something like this:

We were collectively drawing on a few things --mostly, Crawly's appearance and general bearing in the Biblical scenes of S1--

--But also scattered hints of his importance, backed up by conspicuous absences in Heaven and a few profound displays of power. That's all better covered elsewhere, so I won't reiterate the arguments here. All I'm saying is: I think our headcanons were justified.

But it turns out he was this:

!!!

With his curly little--!!

And his neat white--!!

IT TURNS OUT, he was an angel who squeaked and squealed when he was happy; who flailed his arms around and made explosion noises with his mouth to explain nebulas; who preened when told his stars were pretty. Furfur, who knew him before the Fall, says:

"You used to jump on me back, little monkey in a waistcoat..."

(The use of a diminutive there, 'little'...oh, that fascinates me.)

In a pretty huge subversion of expectations, we're given these glimpses of an angel who was sweet, and joyful, and heart-meltingly silly.

In sum...an innocent.

(Perhaps innocent to a troubling degree.

We see how he troubles Aziraphale, during their first conversation. He starts looking around and behind them, checking to make sure that no one can HEAR the blithe and reckless things coming out of this angel's mouth. This angel who talks like he's never been reprimanded in his life; like it's never occurred to him that anyone would want to hurt him.

Before the Beginning, Aziraphale understood Heaven better than he did. The danger is plainly occurring to Aziraphale.)

So now, we the viewers are in on a cruel joke that Aziraphale has known all along, which is that this --THIS-- is the angel who--

*checks notes*

--did a million lightyear freestyle dive into a boiling pool of sulphur. For asking questions.

...Imagine you are Aziraphale, and everything inside you wants to believe Heaven are the Good Guys, and God is Good and Everything She does is capital-R Right...and now try to reconcile that. Keep trying. I don't think he ever totally managed it in 6000 years.

All this gets further complicated when we learn that, despite all of the above, we were still right. That sweet excitable babby up there?

He WAS a powerful and high-ranking angel.

That much is explicitly confirmed, with significant evidence that he could have been among the mightiest of archangels...

...Who apparently accosted his fellow angels for piggyback rides. And was remembered millennia later by those (now fallen) angels as something 'little.'

What does that tell us about who he was? Is?

Hell, Aziraphale has known to be wary of the archangels (and the judgements of Heaven in general) since before the Fall even happened. He chooses to believe they are Good; he can't fool himself into thinking they are Safe.

Yet he's absolutely certain that Crowley won't hurt Job's children. Enough to stand in a burning building and say to them, "I can't save you, but don't be afraid. I won't need to."

And what reason does he give?

("I know you."

"You do not know me."

"I know the angel you were.")

What does that tell us about who he was? Is?

("The angel you knew is not me."

But how is Aziraphale supposed to believe that, when he can see him all the time?)

tl;dr --yes, this is better. I love the tragedy of it.

'Innocence died screaming' and all that.

sometimes I see something absolutely Unhinged going on in a different fandom and I thank my lucky stars that the les mis fandom is so tiny and friendly and relatively discourse free because JESUS CHRIST.

we can speculate all we want about hannibal’s emotions, but mads has stated that hannibal doesn’t “lie emotionally” so when he’s crying during his session with bedelia in savoureux, i think he means it. his regret is real. he speaks as though he is actually mourning abigail, looking for ways for her to still be alive (looking for ways that he can bring her back). he laments losing abigail (having to hide her away) in his pursuit of helping will (leading him to his Becoming). even if he was talking in double-speak, his sadness was very genuine. what he really wanted was to have both will and abgail. he wanted abigail to be both his and will’s mischa. he wanted them to be a family. with abigail hidden away and will in prison, the closeness that he was fostering among the three of them vanishes. i think that if hannibal could’ve had it his way without suspicion falling on him, he would’ve never faked abigail’s death and he would’ve found a way to bring will to his Becoming without putting him in prison. and i know that hannibal never intended to keep will in prison forever, but i think this does explain part of his desperation in hassun to get will out, and his lack of self-preservation when will returns to him for therapy bc it’s very obvious that will intended to try to kill him again. hannibal’s objective from the moment he has to fake abigail’s death is to bring himself, will, and abigail back together again and that’s why mizumono hurts so much. it’s not just that will was going to turn him into the police, but it was that he had just decimated the family that hannibal was trying to build. abigail was never just a pawn, and when he told her, “i’m so sorry i couldn’t protect you in this life,” he meant it. 

if china kills the dollar i will name all of my children after xi jinping

i think of this dynamic often, as i think most hannibal enjoyers do.

but what gets me the most is how much her namesake holds true in the last season. where will sits in the norman chapel imagining that abigail is there with him, only to remember she had been killed. in this moment it’s the only joy he can find.

I thought it was a good thing abigail wasn’t cannibalised until I realised it meant every part of her was wasted. her death fulfilled no greater purpose. none of her fathers cherished her in the end and she was elevated to no new heights. she was simply killed and laid to waste, unknown and unseen. nobody loved her