my best guess at an explanation is maybe neil thought he had to use romantic cues to create the feeling of a deep and meaningful relationship? but it was STRAIGHT UP communicating romance to the audience. i get why everyone is that way about the pairing now, kind of don't love it because good omens book fandom was like, the only canon bastion of asexual love

but i get it

like book crowley and aziraphale feel like non romantic asexual life partners? idk i'm not great at phrasing this stuff. BUT IT WAS GOOD. very disappointing in some respects that i'm in the process of getting used to. but also very enjoyable and a lot of care went into every little detail

i know 'non romantic life partners' could be criticized as just being friends but it's the way it was presented in the book, specifically saying they were sexless unless they wanted to make an effort, emphasizing that they've been much closer than most (not all, but most) close friendships we see on tv (and for so LONG)

but in the adaptation the storytelling continuously tells us to think of it as romantic - other characters assuming they're Together, a scene where there are three sets of adult characters, two of them are het romantic couples and the other two are aziraphale and crowley

and then there are the couple instances of actual romantic music playing while they reaffirm their bond like. it's absolutely made to make the audience expect romance. and i'm disappointed about that as an asexual but also kind of mad for fans who this show led - by its very design - to expect romantic lgbt representation

in other thoughts i'm glad i knew about the twist before watching b/c it meant i got to enjoy it more? it actually is better when you know what's going on which i guess is a good twist XD it's interesting the other way around too so it's good for rewatches

i wonder, if the adaptation had made a point to make it clear that they were sexless (though not necessarily opposed to it), would it still feel like queerbaiting? to me there's a bit of a difference between their bond in the books and their bond in the adaptation (the latter is as i've said clearly romantic)

but if the asexuality was canon (even if the authors didn't think of it that way when they wrote it in - see the use of their word sexless) maybe i'd feel better about it.

i might not be accurate or making sense. i'm not that eloquent. tomorow's going to be one of the difficult days off, i suspect (although I could always get lucky and not be miserable) and i am going to bed soon

so if i've said something Offensive please forgive

untangling representation in a canon where the authors weren't specifically thinking of us when they wrote it gets tricky

I haven't read the book, but the show felt like it was trying so hard to get people to ship it that I am actually uninterested in shipping them, if that makes sense

like it felt really obvious to the point where I felt like it was a cop out that they didn't just go for it

That makes a lot of sense, yeah - to be honest the way they told aziraphale and crowley’s history nearly turned me off shipping them, it felt like they wanted crowley trying really hard for aziraphale without any build up to him feeling that way, and i can see how that especially would have felt forced

yeah, it felt forced in places

they didn't have time to build it up properly but in that case it seems like it might have been better to just play it down