The Arrangement: An Essay

[hekateras]

This is just a quick gander into the way the relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley progresses in Good Omens throughout the book, probably in not too eloquent a format.

What strikes me is that at the beginning, it is portrayed as very much a matter of necessity/convenience rather than emotional fulfillment: "they wouldn't have chosen each other

Comments

[hekateras]

Just... Everything, all of that, yes. Especially the part about needing to comfort Crowley whenever I think of him trying to be a proper demon or, gods forbid, being put under pressure to be a proper demon. It's really kind of miraculous, really, when you consider it, that they were able to arrive at an arrangement (which, over the, became The Arrangement) roughly during the Crusades, when so much was going on for their respective sides. I imagine that, by them, they would have adopted a pretty casual attitude towards fighting each other, simply doing their jobs - but says a lot about both of them that they came to and were self-aware enough to come up with something as formalised as an "arrangement". Once again, Aziraphale's attitude would likely have been the greater hurdle, so the Crusade era makes sense - it's a very small-scale Apocalypse, in a way, a lot of suffering for a holy cause, and Aziraphale would likely have already started feeling the isolation and disconnect he has to come to terms with later on.

Another moment from the book I really loved was the absolutely casual way Crowley rants away in order of priority Aziraphale's list of hobbies. The focus of the scene was their decision to stop the Apocalypse, not so much their background, but it was also character-establishing in the best way possible. One of the better parts of the early chapters was seeing how these two creatures had progressed and changed from the serpent of Eden and the angel of the Eastern Gate to these two fully fledged, unique personalities.

"(I have 2 icons from this artist, Pika-la-Cynique. The web-comic in question is The Girls Next Door, and it's a multi-fandom meta crossover in which Aziraphale and Crowley are so in-character and so endearingly themselves that I can't even begin to tell you."

Yes, I've already read it (well, all the pages with GO, to be precise ^^;) during my habitual stalking of the Good Omens updates on Deviantart. The Azzie/Crowley depictions were simply the best, that's true. I particularly loved their meta discussion on slash, and Crowley casually draping himself half-naked over the table. Gah, I think the line "drunken tangle of limbs and wings" single-handedly transformed me into an AC shipper, back when I was still new to the fandom. I'm serious. O_O

"By the way, I've friended you; is that all right? I see you don't post much to your LJ itself, but I like talking to you, and friending is how I keep track of people. Feel free to reciprocate if you like.)"

It's all right, sure, but I *really* don't use LJ except for lurking & reading. All of the stuff I post is either on my Deviantart gallery, my Tumblr or my AO3 page. Mostly I do fanart (read: wing smut), though I've kind of gone crazy and written this 30k-word series of fic during the past month.
AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/series/21055
Tumblr: http://kaytara-art.tumblr.com/tagged/fanart

[irisbleufic]

Naked? Wow, did I miss that bit? I remember him in a dressing gown with the shoulder sort of falling down suggestively, but not nakedness. I'll have to re-check that...

Another moment from the book I really loved was the absolutely casual way Crowley rants away in order of priority Aziraphale's list of hobbies. The focus of the scene was their decision to stop the Apocalypse, not so much their background, but it was also character-establishing in the best way possible. One of the better parts of the early chapters was seeing how these two creatures had progressed and changed from the serpent of Eden and the angel of the Eastern Gate to these two fully fledged, unique personalities.

That they know each other's fondnesses and weaknesses is, perhaps, the real clincher in all of this - and especially from the perspective of moving the relationship forward from the not inconsiderable place it's in already :) The affection is so deep and abiding that you do seriously wonder how early on the Arrangement gained the capital letter, when the fighting really ceased to be...well, here's the thing, I wonder if they ever actually had to ever seriously harm each other to begin with, seeing as they're relatively amicable with each other in Eden to start off. I have such a hard time imagining them coming to blows worse than, say, Aziraphale thwapping Crowley over the head with a book or snake!Crowley inflicting a not particularly hard and not particularly poisonous bite ;)

Thanks for the links; noted and brought up in tabs.

[hekateras]

"Naked? Wow, did I miss that bit? I remember him in a dressing gown with the shoulder sort of falling down suggestively, but not nakedness. I'll have to re-check that..."

Er, well, I guess "half-naked" is a sliding scale, but I do seem to recall the dressing gown sort of completely slipping off his shoulders and leaving him bare-chested at that point, and hissing into Azzie's ear... Heh, I know why people write historical smut, yeah, tempter!Crowley is just so much fun. :D

" I have such a hard time imagining them coming to blows worse than, say, Aziraphale thwapping Crowley over the head with a book or snake!Crowley inflicting a not particularly hard and not particularly poisonous bite ;)"

True, and there is that one passage that says all Aziraphale had ever done to get rid of demons was drop a hint that he needed to work, and that seems to speak against serious fighting in the past (though he could simply have stopped remembering that part). Still, that's what teh angst and teh drahma are for. For some reason I enjoy the idea of them slipping back, relationship-wise, from their amicability in the Garden while stationed on Earth, at least initially - I think they'd both need time to adjust to living among humans and that time would not necessarily be conducive to buddying up with the other guy. Also, there must have been times when they had conflicting orders and discorporating the other would've been the most convenient way of accomplishing them, before they learned to (or accepted the idea of) maneuvering around their duties. So I do think there would likely have been fighting involved at some point, even if increasingly half-hearted as time went on (and am currently writing a little Crusade-era piece just on that).

Thanks for checking out my fic and DAwatching me, it is a great honour. ^^

[irisbleufic]

No problem :) I keep a DA account for following and commenting on artists whose (primarily GO) stuff I enjoy looking at. As for LJ, the add does seem to have stuck this time, so, if you like, feel free to add back. However, if you're not an account that adds back, I have a quirk about my numbers balancing - so just let me know if you don't, and I'll shift you over as one of my bookmarks instead. OCD is a terrible thing; I wish I could kick it, but medication really didn't make a shred of difference.

[spfi_duo]

(Nam)

First: I agree with all statements which have been made here.

Second: I blame you both for the archive crawl I just endured, and the burning of snorted soda from laughing so hard.

Thank you for both~