A Lesson in Characterization
May. 19th, 2026 01:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shivverOf course I’ve been thinking more about Good Omens 3, and in mulling over a particular scene, I identified one of the weaknesses in my own writing. (Well, I’ve always known it, but this really drove the point home.)
The scene in question is when Crowley and Aziraphale get the privacy to discuss God’s proposal, which was whether to restore the universe to exactly the way it was before or to destroy it and move on. Aziraphale tells Crowley, “You know what I want,” then asks him what he wants. Crowley then says that he wants a world where people get real free will, without the testing, without the pressure to be good and the punishment for evil, without Heaven and Hell manipulating things, without angels and demons. He then asks Aziraphale, “Did I say the wrong thing?” and Aziraphale replies, “I believe we have come to a decision.”
While we were watching this the first time, my husband paused the playback and asked me, “Do you think Aziraphale was hiding his true thoughts from Crowley?” meaning, that Aziraphale really wanted to restore the world but was agreeing with Crowley because it was clear that Crowley, the only angel who actually loved the universe and humanity, wanted to destroy it. I replied, “Oh, no,” because I thought that Aziraphale agreed with Crowley.
On the second watch, however, knowing how the scene was going to unfold, I watched it a lot more closely, and I was wrong, absolutely wrong. As Crowley steps up to Aziraphale and begins to say what he wants, the camera switches to Aziraphale, whose eyes are shining with hope and who is smiling very faintly. Then, when Crowley says, “I want a real universe,” the hope and the smile fade, and as Crowley continues to explain, Aziraphale slides into despair, and he turns away, to both think about Crowley’s words and to compose himself. Then, he turns back to Crowley with a bright smile and says, “I believe we have come to a decision.”
Michael Sheen didn’t have many chances in GO3 to actually perform, but he was masterful in this scene.
So, yes, I was wrong. Obviously Aziraphale wanted to restore the world so that he and Crowley could be together and he could continue to fix the existing world, and he had to bury his own hopes in order to stand in solidarity with Crowley. Or perhaps he realized at that moment that Crowley was right. It could be intepreted either way. But, whatever the reality, I can admit I was wrong.
Then, yesterday, I read a discussion about that scene that said something to the effect of, “At this point, Aziraphale and Crowley met, in agreement that the universe was broken and needed to be destroyed.” My first reaction was, “Wow, you really missed the point, just like I had.” And then I thought, “Why did they miss the point?” and I realized that they, like me, wanted Aziraphale and Crowley to agree at that point, to stand together as one, with one mind. For me, I love stories where the heroes bicker and disagree all throughout, but in the final battle they come together on the main principle. (That's even what my profile icon is -- the scene in the book where Aziraphale and Crowley finally stand together when Lucifer appears.) I’m not going to guess why the discussion author wanted it, as I have no idea.
And then I realized, this scene had to have gone exactly the way it did, because that’s who Aziraphale is. It’s not that he values his relationship with Crowley over the rest of the universe, or that he thinks he can fix the world, but that he is the optimist who never actually learns that the world isn’t black and white. That was the entire point of the second season — the season that didn’t actually exist in Gaiman’s and Pratchett’s plans (they’d only written the original book and planned what the sequel would be, and that sequel became GO3), that Gaiman wrote in order to develop the characters and world to prepare for GO3.
In GO2, Aziraphale was repeatedly shown that the world doesn’t match his idealized view, that there are shades of good and evil, and that Heaven is doing some pretty dodgy things. Yet, he forgot these things every time and entered each new situation thinking that good and evil are absolutes, that good will prevail, and that he can fix anything. This was hammered home in the final scene of GO2 — after watching the chaos of the last 6000 years, demonstrating to Gabriel and Beelzebub that the Great Plan didn’t actually mean anything, and watching Heaven and Hell attempt to punish Gabriel for falling in love, he still believed that Heaven is on the side of good and that it wants to save humanity, and chose to become Supreme Archangel in order to make it work like he thinks it should.
Thus, Aziraphale definitely wanted to restore the world at the beginning of the decision scene, because he never actually internalized the fact that the world cannot be fixed. Yes, the events of the episode showed him, yet again, that it can’t be fixed, but true to his nature, he never truly believed it, and thus, he wanted another chance at it.
And thus, once Crowley told him that he wants to destroy the rigged and unfixable world — that the current universe can’t be fixed and that Crowley, who cares more for the universe and its people than anything else, wants it to end and be replaced by something more fair — Aziraphale buried his own wishes, came to terms with his sacrifice — not only of losing his life and Crowley, but of losing the world he had so much faith in — and put on a brave face.
And this is called good, consistent characterization.
Certainly I wanted Aziraphale to have, on his own, come to the opinion that the world had to be destroyed, to have finally learnt to see things as they are and not how he wanted them to be — after all, that’s what I saw on the first viewing of the episode; I saw what I wanted to see, not what actually happened — but there’s a difference between having your characters act how you want them to act and having your characters act true to their nature.
I probably would not have written this scene this way. I would have written what *I* wanted — the two heroes coming together and agreeing — rather than keeping the characterization consistent and developing the story around them, and this is why I’ll never be a good writer. Characterization has always been the weakest part of my writing, something that hasn’t improved a bit since I started despite effort (and writing classes!). Ah well.
The scene in question is when Crowley and Aziraphale get the privacy to discuss God’s proposal, which was whether to restore the universe to exactly the way it was before or to destroy it and move on. Aziraphale tells Crowley, “You know what I want,” then asks him what he wants. Crowley then says that he wants a world where people get real free will, without the testing, without the pressure to be good and the punishment for evil, without Heaven and Hell manipulating things, without angels and demons. He then asks Aziraphale, “Did I say the wrong thing?” and Aziraphale replies, “I believe we have come to a decision.”
While we were watching this the first time, my husband paused the playback and asked me, “Do you think Aziraphale was hiding his true thoughts from Crowley?” meaning, that Aziraphale really wanted to restore the world but was agreeing with Crowley because it was clear that Crowley, the only angel who actually loved the universe and humanity, wanted to destroy it. I replied, “Oh, no,” because I thought that Aziraphale agreed with Crowley.
On the second watch, however, knowing how the scene was going to unfold, I watched it a lot more closely, and I was wrong, absolutely wrong. As Crowley steps up to Aziraphale and begins to say what he wants, the camera switches to Aziraphale, whose eyes are shining with hope and who is smiling very faintly. Then, when Crowley says, “I want a real universe,” the hope and the smile fade, and as Crowley continues to explain, Aziraphale slides into despair, and he turns away, to both think about Crowley’s words and to compose himself. Then, he turns back to Crowley with a bright smile and says, “I believe we have come to a decision.”
Michael Sheen didn’t have many chances in GO3 to actually perform, but he was masterful in this scene.
So, yes, I was wrong. Obviously Aziraphale wanted to restore the world so that he and Crowley could be together and he could continue to fix the existing world, and he had to bury his own hopes in order to stand in solidarity with Crowley. Or perhaps he realized at that moment that Crowley was right. It could be intepreted either way. But, whatever the reality, I can admit I was wrong.
Then, yesterday, I read a discussion about that scene that said something to the effect of, “At this point, Aziraphale and Crowley met, in agreement that the universe was broken and needed to be destroyed.” My first reaction was, “Wow, you really missed the point, just like I had.” And then I thought, “Why did they miss the point?” and I realized that they, like me, wanted Aziraphale and Crowley to agree at that point, to stand together as one, with one mind. For me, I love stories where the heroes bicker and disagree all throughout, but in the final battle they come together on the main principle. (That's even what my profile icon is -- the scene in the book where Aziraphale and Crowley finally stand together when Lucifer appears.) I’m not going to guess why the discussion author wanted it, as I have no idea.
And then I realized, this scene had to have gone exactly the way it did, because that’s who Aziraphale is. It’s not that he values his relationship with Crowley over the rest of the universe, or that he thinks he can fix the world, but that he is the optimist who never actually learns that the world isn’t black and white. That was the entire point of the second season — the season that didn’t actually exist in Gaiman’s and Pratchett’s plans (they’d only written the original book and planned what the sequel would be, and that sequel became GO3), that Gaiman wrote in order to develop the characters and world to prepare for GO3.
In GO2, Aziraphale was repeatedly shown that the world doesn’t match his idealized view, that there are shades of good and evil, and that Heaven is doing some pretty dodgy things. Yet, he forgot these things every time and entered each new situation thinking that good and evil are absolutes, that good will prevail, and that he can fix anything. This was hammered home in the final scene of GO2 — after watching the chaos of the last 6000 years, demonstrating to Gabriel and Beelzebub that the Great Plan didn’t actually mean anything, and watching Heaven and Hell attempt to punish Gabriel for falling in love, he still believed that Heaven is on the side of good and that it wants to save humanity, and chose to become Supreme Archangel in order to make it work like he thinks it should.
Thus, Aziraphale definitely wanted to restore the world at the beginning of the decision scene, because he never actually internalized the fact that the world cannot be fixed. Yes, the events of the episode showed him, yet again, that it can’t be fixed, but true to his nature, he never truly believed it, and thus, he wanted another chance at it.
And thus, once Crowley told him that he wants to destroy the rigged and unfixable world — that the current universe can’t be fixed and that Crowley, who cares more for the universe and its people than anything else, wants it to end and be replaced by something more fair — Aziraphale buried his own wishes, came to terms with his sacrifice — not only of losing his life and Crowley, but of losing the world he had so much faith in — and put on a brave face.
And this is called good, consistent characterization.
Certainly I wanted Aziraphale to have, on his own, come to the opinion that the world had to be destroyed, to have finally learnt to see things as they are and not how he wanted them to be — after all, that’s what I saw on the first viewing of the episode; I saw what I wanted to see, not what actually happened — but there’s a difference between having your characters act how you want them to act and having your characters act true to their nature.
I probably would not have written this scene this way. I would have written what *I* wanted — the two heroes coming together and agreeing — rather than keeping the characterization consistent and developing the story around them, and this is why I’ll never be a good writer. Characterization has always been the weakest part of my writing, something that hasn’t improved a bit since I started despite effort (and writing classes!). Ah well.
