Listen, listen, Crowley sauntered downwards right? But he was an angel before that. And he cares about humans, we know he does. He’s the one who gets all outraged at the flood: ‘You can’t kill children!’ The one who thinks Adam and Eve’s punishment is too harsh, the one who doesn’t think people should be nailed to a cross for telling others to be kind. He cares about humans.
Know who else cares about humans and is know to be the angel closest to them? Raphael.
And know who didn’t show up in Good Omens at all even though he’s one of the best-known angels in pop culture? Also Raphael.
But what if, WHAT IF we got Raphael but just not in the way we expected to? Because I dare you to look me in the eye and tell me that Crowley was called ‘Crawly’ as an angel. We all know he wasn’t.
Anyway, tl;dnr Crowely is the fallen angel Raphael. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
This become one of my favourite fan theories instantly!
I had a faint memory that I’ve seen Raphael depicted often as a red head.. I checked and he sure is! (Oh I wish it was possible to embed images here.. but Google search with ‘Raphael + angel’ is quite something..)
Consider also that in Abrahamic traditions, Raphael is commonly associated with healing/considered to be the patron angel of such. Another common entity frequently associated with healing and the healing arts throughout history? The snake.
Consider also that Raphael is generally regarded as the counterpart to the angel known in Islam as
Isrāfīl. Alternate romanizations of
Isrāfīl are Israfel, and Esrafil.
Isrāfīl
is the archangel of music, whose trumpet will herald the start of Armageddon.
Just saying.
I love this because like… Aziraphale squinting at Crowley in the garden, because you - don’t you seem… familiar? Stumbling when he went to say a name not because he didn’t know Crowley’s, but because he wanted to say something else entirely, something quite ridiculous. Not being as reluctant to speak with Crowley whenever they run across each other through the centuries because he’s, well, he resonates with something in Aziraphale’s minor principality, something that says he should be - trusted (to lead, once; to question God; to Fall, just as was planned; to save the world).
And on the flipside, Crowley who’s so screamingly embarrassed. Maybe threw his weight around a bit Down Below purely to get put topside, because it was all my lord this and betrayer that. The only other Archangel down there is Lucy, and boy, he’s a right joy to be around. Earth is so lovely for Crowley because no one knows him there, including Aziraphale, and Crowley is desperate to keep it that way. They talk about Before, sometimes, mainly while very, very drunk, and Crowley’s always maintained that he, er, lost his name, didn’t he. Lost the uhhhh ability to say it. Couldn’t possibly tell Aziraphale, sorry. Wouldn’t even know who he was if Crowley told him. Don’t worry about it, angel.
Culminating perhaps in a moment after the apocalypse that wasn’t, after their respective… resignations, where as Aziraphale leaves hell he hears the whisperings that of course Crowley can withstand holy water, he’s just like Lucy, isn’t he? Ex-archangel, all that. Would be a bit anticlimactic if a bit of water they dunk babies in could kill Lucifer.
Crowley continues patting himself on the back for decades for hiding the Big One from Aziraphale until one day they’re wandering through an installation exhibiting iconography from throughout the world and they come across one of the rare pieces of Raphael - bit odd, humans knowing about an archangel that was sacked before they even existed, but that’s ineffability for you - and Aziraphale stops, hums, says they didn’t nearly do the hair justice.
Oh? You ah - knew him, did you? Crowley asks, trying to sound casual, suddenly sweating even though he hasn’t sweat since a very busy day in Tadfield. Because if Aziraphale knew, that would change everything. Gone will be the easy camaraderie of millennium he worked so hard for, the trust, the equality.
But Aziraphale only glances at Crowley sidelong, smiles faintly at him as his eyes flick up, meaningfully, to the very red shaved-sides-long-top curly hair Crowley’s been favoring lately (it’s from America, angel, very stylish).
Not until recently, Aziraphale says lightly, assuming you mean that in the Biblical sense.
And Crowley’s hair is suddenly not as red compared to the tips of his ears, because that’s just great. Wonderful. The angel knows, and instead of wanting to talk about it, he’s just making jokes about it. Just Crowley’s luck.
(Because what could a name do to change how Aziraphale thought of Crowley? He’s changed it at least three times since the Beginning, and Aziraphale’s always gotten used to it.)
I’m just gonna go back and c&p my tags from my earlier, post, bear with me a sec:
Because all of a sudden, my mind is boomeranging back to that one interview - god, y’all are gonna have to help me out with sources here. There’s that post floating around of an interview where Gaiman mentions one of the things that inspired Good Omens: a ridiculously anti-Semitic scene from a play where a bunch of Jewish dudes gather around to recount their evil deeds, and his thought, “What if there was one guy there who was just… not evil, and he completely forgot to do his job?” And how the character that was born there later split to become Crowley and Aziraphale.
And then the interview, somewhere, wherein Michael Sheen said that in a way, he thought of it as Aziraphale and Crowley having once been One; having once been part of the same being, and spending all their time since trying to become one again. Presumably, of course, he means God - or some nebulous idea of the divine.
But just for the sake of funsies, think about it.
That strange flicker of half-conscious recognition on the wall.
Seeing people on social media who are all “idk I don’t know if I’d vote for this Democrat if they get the nomination” when the other guy is literally running concentration camps:
I just can’t do this again. I can’t do another 4 years of Tr*mp because y'all think a centrist is a bad as a dude that literally supports ethnic cleansing.
Peter quill survives the snap right and is chilling with the avengers when endgame rolls around. he volunteers to go to Vormir bc Gamora obviously and it’s like him and nebula and they get up there and red skull is like “you must lose that which you love” and nebula and quill look at each other and are like ‘I don’t particularly love you’ and so quill fucking reaches into his jacket and pulls out his Zune Yondu got him in gotg2 and chucks it over the edge and red skull’s like wtf? but then it works
The problem with these “inanimate objects work fine” headcanon is that it’s supposed to be a soul for a soul and MP3 players don’t have those
you’re tryna tell me there’s not a single soul song on that Zune?
You know what, I take it back. The Soul Stone’s already reaching by considering Thanos’ “love” for Gamora valid. It shouldn’t have a problem with an MP3 player.
Ew, no. I was just eating cheese and bacon balls, what the hell is that??
I swear, KFC’s new product team is actually a frat house they just occasionally throw a pound of weed at.
While over here in the lil old UK we are only just getting mashed potato as a side dish .
We have mashed potatoes, corn, gravy, and cheese all mixed up in a bowl with fried chicken on top.
This one, I’m pretty sure, was because someone accidentally left the frat house an actual Southern recipe once.
Pretty sure they still don’t have fries at KFC in the US. Never saw that until I got to the UK. (Not sure when they added their version of chicken place potato wedges back home, but I haven’t been to a KFC there in at least 15 years now.)
They were offering those bowls when I was back, and it sounded like a mess to this “please no food touching on the plate!” person, at least. Potatoes and gravy, sure; the rest, not so much. May be fine if jumbled up food doesn’t bother you to the same extent.
Part of the confusion is a lot of KFCs are kfc/something else. The one near me is also taco bell. So TECHNICALLY you can get tacos at kfc. I think I also saw one mixed with pizza hut and one that was something else? Fish I think?
Pizza hut is correct. All three are owned by the same company, Yum! Brands, which was previously owned by Pepsi.
