Signal Boost: Relationship imbalance in Good Omens fic: A Meta

[cimorene]

stellar_dust posted: Relationship imbalance in Good Omens fic: A Meta

In just about every A/C fic, regardless of whether they’re friends, or in an asexual relationship, or fucking constantly, or married, or spending 60k words trying to work out just what they are, or whatever -- there’s almost always at least a tiny little whiff of imbalance. I don’t quite want to say power imbalance, but maybe status imbalance? To the extent that Aziraphale is nearly always, even just the tiniest barely-there unconscious bit, held higher than Crowley just because he never experienced the Fall. Sometimes it’s explicit in the text, sometimes in one or both of their inner monologues, sometimes only really subtly there in the particular word choices the author uses.

Isn’t part of the point, though, that they both like being who they are, even if both Head Offices are a bit rubbish? That they are in fact balanced? That Hell may have split from Heaven, but that breakup was part of the ineffable plan, and Hellish things don’t automatically have to be corrupt or bad just because God said so? That demons and angels do, after all, have free will, and that Hell tends to corruption only because that’s what most of them have chosen and continue to choose? That Heaven is a little too self-righteous to be automatically and always good, because most angels have chosen pride over humility since the Fall, and continue to do so?

I enjoyed this essay a lot, and there are further good points in the comments!