strwberri-pwushie-deactivated20 asked:
Hi Mr. Gaiman, apologies if you’ve ever been asked this question before, but I have a question. So I’m good omens, Crowley loves queen. Some of the fandom has been head-cannoning that Crowley and Freddie Mercury were friends when Freddie was alive. Do you agree with this?
My understanding from the messages I get is that this is absolutely true: there are definitely people who like to imagine that Crowley and Freddie Mercury were friends. Technically this is called “Headcanon” and it’s not something that has anything to do with the author.
yorgosism asked: hey neil, i have been wondering how Crowley’s past life (? angel life?) was like, like what was his relationship with the Archangels. Also, i think someone brought this theory up, sorry if I am repeating, but what do you think about the theory saying that crowley might have been the Archangel Raphael?
I think this: https://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/185332471341/neil-i-like-to-interpret-the-relationship-between
(And so people have them somewhere easily to hand, that one also links to this: https://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/169084845106/i-am-genuinely-sorry-to-bother-you-with-this-but and, from August 2017 before we even started shooting, this https://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/164222681376/good-omens-a-gentle-reminder.)
Do you want this to sound passive aggressive to ward people off or is this miscommunication (on my part)? I think most people are asking for your personal headcanon while still accepting others’ at this point. Maybe your experiences have taught you differently and you are cautious now but to me every time this seems more and more as a “don’t bother me, doesn’t matter so why are you asking” and that you could just leave don’t you? I’m not trying to be mean, just not sure how to interpret these answers anymore
If it sounds passive-aggressive then I’m not doing it right. It’s meant to sound helpful, but firm. It’s also meant to indicate that I’ve been saying the same thing about Good Omens here for years, and on my blog at Neilgaiman.com for much much much longer than that, and also to be helpful to people who can’t easily find things, or even know they’ve already been answered, because Tumblr’s not the best website when it comes to finding things people have previously posted.
And I’m sure you weren’t trying to be mean.
So…
I’m the author. My personal headcanon is Canon if I write it. It’s also irrelevant if I don’t write it in a book or put it on the TV. I’m not going to endorse fan theories, partly because I don’t like the idea of cutting off other, equally valid, fan theories. I’m also not going to endorse, or even read, fan theories (except possibly for ones with pictures about how Crowley got into the bathtub) because it’s just like reading fan-fiction with my own characters in it, which I don’t do: I’d hate to not feel comfortable writing about something in the future because someone else wrote that idea in the past.
If I had a huge and well-developed headcanon about Crowley’s background as an angel I’d hate to either talk about it in public, because I don’t, I write the things instead, or spend time with anyone else’s versions, because if I ever was going to write that story, that might put me off.
Does that help?
yorgosism asked:
hey neil, i have been wondering how Crowley’s past life (? angel life?) was like, like what was his relationship with the Archangels. Also, i think someone brought this theory up, sorry if I am repeating, but what do you think about the theory saying that crowley might have been the Archangel Raphael?
I think this: https://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/185332471341/neil-i-like-to-interpret-the-relationship-between
(And so people have them somewhere easily to hand, that one also links to this: https://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/169084845106/i-am-genuinely-sorry-to-bother-you-with-this-but and, from August 2017 before we even started shooting, this https://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/164222681376/good-omens-a-gentle-reminder.)
espepspes asked: Neil I like to interpret the relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley as more romantic. And since they're not sexually inclined would you believe them to be asexual and homoromantic? (or bi or pan romantic)
I think that anything that happens on screen is canon, and anything that happens offscreen is valid headcanon. And I also think interpreting what you see on the screen and deciding what it means is part of the joy of watching TV, and I am pretty certain that I wasn’t put on this Earth to tell anyone at all their headcanon is wrong, nor should they give two hoots if I did. I might be wrong, after all.
I tried to explain my position in
http://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/169084845106/i-am-genuinely-sorry-to-bother-you-with-this-but
and
https://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/164222681376/good-omens-a-gentle-reminder
Anyone who wants to know what I think should probably look them both over.
Good Omens: a gentle reminder
Your headcanon is your headcanon. The characters in your mind are what they are, and nobody is trying to take them away from you. Think of the Good Omens TV series as a stage play: for six full hours, actors are going to be portraying the roles of Crowley and Aziraphale, Shadwell and Madame Tracy, Newt and Anathema, Adam, Pepper, Wensleydale and Brian and the rest. Will they look like the people in your head? The ones you’ve been drawing and writing about and imagining for (in some cases) almost 30 years?
Probably not. Which is fine.
The people in your head and your drawings are still there, and still real and still true. I’ve seen drawings of hundreds of different Aziraphales over the years, all with different faces and body-shapes, different hair and skin, and would never have thought to tell anyone who drew or loved them that that wasn’t what Aziraphale looked like. (And a couple of years after we wrote it, I was amused to realise that the Aziraphale in my head looked nothing like the Aziraphale in Terry’s head.) I’ve loved every instance of Good Omens Cosplay I’ve seen, and in no case did I ever think anyone was doing it wrong: they were all Aziraphales and Crowleys, and it was always a delight.
Good Omens has been unillustrated for 27 years, which means that each of you gets to make up your own look for the characters, your own backstories, your own ideas about how they will behave.
The TV version is being made with love and with faithfulness to the story. It’s got material and characters in it that Terry and I had discussed over the years, (some of it from what we would have done it there had been a sequel). Writing it has taken up the greater part of my last three years. You might like it – I really hope you will – but you don’t have to. You can start watching it, decide that you prefer the thing in your head, and stop watching it. (I never saw the last Lord of the Rings movie, because I liked the thing in my head too much.)
Remember we are making this with love.
And that your own personal headCrowleys and headAziraphales and headFourHorsemen and headThem and headHastur and headLigur and headSisterMary and all the rest are yours, and safe, and nobody is ever going to take them away from you.