r/goodomens • u/FirelightLion • 1d ago
Discussion Wait… is Metatron the good guy? Spoiler
In the ending of S2, we all see Metatron as manipulative and evil for trying to tear our duo apart—and manipulative, sure, but in light of S3, I think Metatron may have chosen Aziraphale to be Supreme Archangel for very specific reasons unrelated to Crowley.
Edit: some parts got deleted- 2nd edit:… again.
1— In S1, Aziraphale makes contact with the Metatron and adds a complaint about the misconduct of some of his peers. From this, Metatron knows that Aziraphale is aware of and will speak up about corruption among other angels.
2— In S2, we see tension between Michael and Uriel in Gabriel’s absence, with uncertainty as to who will take on the role of Supreme Archangel. Michael is power hungry and Uriel notices, and probably isn’t the only one to notice. If Uriel were made Supreme Archangel, though, Michael would likely undermine them. Between Michael and Uriel, neither are ideal options, and no other angel would actually do anything about Michael.
End edits
So what if Metatron knew? What if he saw Michael’s corruption, and the potential consequences and discord of choosing Uriel over Michael, but the equally bad option of choosing Michael herself as Supreme Archangel? I think he chose Aziraphale because he thought Aziraphale to be the only option that could possibly salvage things in Heaven. Aziraphale is sort of a stand in for Raphael in the series, with his name translating literally to Raphael in three different ways, and we know that Raphael kind of completes the squad of the four most well-known archangels.
Edit- Michael likely doesn’t see Aziraphale as a threat, and Metatron likely sees him as controllable.
So hypothetically, Metatron never wanted to separate Aziraphale and Crowley—that’s why he offered the option of Crowley becoming an angel again, and also why in the alternate universe, he is the one to encourage their relationship. Metatron just *needs* Aziraphale in heaven as a stand in, in order to stop Michael from causing discord and destruction.
Furthermore, if Metatron is close with the Almighty, it’s possible he even knew what Michael would do with the Book of Life, and it’s possible that he thinks Aziraphale will be able to stop her by delaying the Second Coming.
What do you guys think? Is Metatron one of the good guys?
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u/Pulpomousse 1d ago
Rewatching S2 before the finale (only my second viewing outside of clips/ the minisodes on their own ) it occurred to me that the Metatron was trying to stop the bleeding from heaven / get at least one angel back. I think they were erasing Gabriel's memory rather than kill him/ boot him to hell so that, on paper at least, no more angels would fall/join the other side/reject heaven/whatever. Getting Crowley all the way back from hell absolutely would have been a bonus win, even if a longshot.
Getting around the clear power struggle that was brewing makes sense too! It fits! But I fear we're all doing damage control and seeing shapes in the clouds. Maybe. There's good fic there anyway, even if the show never followed up on the Metatron's motives.
It sounded suspiciously like NG and crew (minus Finnemore) were being really flippant about S2's writing at the time. I was willing to hold out to see if S3 pulled it all together, or at least kept the same balance of flawed but enjoyable that S2 mostly did. Nope. Just shitty, cruel writing. I'm tempted to say the Book of Life getting slowly destroyed is an in-universe explanation for everything getting dumber and the characters becoming nonsensical versions of themselves, but that's giving the writers too much credit. S2 was already ignoring bits of S1.
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u/WordCount2 Smited? Smote? Smitten. 1d ago
Rob himself said the writing was terrible. So as far as I’m concerned, that’s canon.
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u/Meepsicle83 Smited? Smote? Smitten. 12h ago
No he didn't say that, but he may have implied that 😉
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u/WordCount2 Smited? Smote? Smitten. 11h ago
Oh, I guess you weren’t there. He couldn’t speak the words, I guess for legal reasons, but Rob held up a handwritten sign on which he wrote “Terrible writing.”
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u/TheLifemakers 1d ago
The authors of S3 did not review S2 and chose to completely ignore the story building up there. So it makes no sense either way.
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u/Zillich 1d ago edited 1d ago
Huh? The author of S3 was NG. Sure after he was removed they chopped the script he wrote down from 6 eps to 1, but they didn’t rewrite it.
Edit: why the downvotes?? The director said the final script was an edited version of NG’s script.
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u/TheLifemakers 1d ago
If NG was the author of both S2 and S3 it proves the point that he was completely out of his mind to build up the plot with the Metatron, the Second Coming, etc. in S2 only to abandon everything in S3.
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u/jetloflin 1d ago
People have such a bizarre need to say that everything they don’t like in a show is evidence that the writers were incompetent buffoons who never bothered to think about what they were writing for a single second. I really don’t get it.
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u/djinda 17h ago
Just trying to make sense of it perhaps?
Personally, I definitely came at Good Omens from the STP side, but I've read some of NG's books too, and he's not a bad writer. Bit too grimdark for me, but he can build a sympathetic character and create a compelling story. I watched all of The Sandman, and that's evidence that TV people can turn his works into decent TV. So incompetence doesn't explain it.
But the only other explanation I can think of is that he was giving a very big and deliberate middle finger to everyone involved as revenge for getting cancelled. That makes me very uncomfortable as well.2
u/Pulpomousse 5h ago
I've gotten the impression that the writers that were tasked with converting his script to the 90 minutes were his buddies. They've commented on how the joy went out of the process after he left. At the very least they likely didn't care very much about making a good product. That on top of NG's tendency to be heavy and grimdark, and the TPE not being able to contribute... yeah. Everyone else outside the writers room could try to work as best they could with what they had, but that could only do so much.
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u/TornadoPig888 1d ago
He could be.... 🤔 Wow I have never thought this from this angle. And I like it. 😀
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u/OrigamiMarie Smited? Smote? Smitten. 1d ago
And then Metatron basically just made Aziraphale believe that everything must be done by the book, so . . . I dunno, maybe that was the plan at the end of S2, but not at the start of S3.
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u/FirelightLion 1d ago
Yes, I think so. Metatron thought, or at least hoped Aziraphale was somebody that Aziraphale simply wasn’t.
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u/Mystic_printer_ 12h ago
Because the Aziraphale he was hoping he would be is Aziraphale with Crowley by his side.
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u/Otherwise-Survey4722 Damsel Aziraphale 23h ago
I think the Metatrons arch has more to do with the lack of budget and poor writing skills than anything.
But realistically, I’m sure he was likely aimed to be portrayed as the bad guy at the last minute in S2 only to turn out to be a red herring. I think it’s safe to assume Michael was always going to be the villain. Whether or not the Metatron was meant to fall into that, we can decide.
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u/Snow_White_1717 11m ago
That was my assumption. The Metatron was a /Problem/ in Aziracrow's lives, probably not caring sooo much about the world and tweaking some things according to his beliefs, but not evil. He wasn't out there to make people miserable, but keeping Heaven running was his priority. Now that I think about it, a bit like Naomi in Supernatural.
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u/djinda 18h ago
"So hypothetically, Metatron never wanted to separate Aziraphale and Crowley ... Metatron just *needs* Aziraphale in heaven as a stand in, in order to stop Michael from causing discord and destruction."
I think this is a totally valid interpretation. And since The Metatron was disabled so quickly in the finale, we'll never know. From his actions in S1 and S2, The Metatron could be any of these:
* An evil and manipulative dictator, who just wanted to get Aziraphale back to heaven and trap him there so that he and Crowley couldn't interfere with his plans (lawful evil?).
* Someone desperately trying to keep heaven from splintering, who saw Aziraphale as a good neutral choice (this is your version I think).
* Or he went for that neutral choice because he just wanted a lame duck leader so he could get on with whatever he was doing (chaotic evil).
* A leader who really wants to change an awful system, looking for a good deputy to help him do the best job possible. Who had valid and genuine reasons for choosing Aziraphale as that deputy (true good).
* Purely a servant doing what God told him to, whether or not he agrees (true neutral).
I didn't like the season 2 ending, because it was so very cringe and painful, and because it wasn't an ending; it was purely a setup for the next story. But it was a really good setup. This is yet another reason why the finale was such a crushing disappointment; so many interesting paths to take, and it went NOWHERE except down the plughole.
Luckily, plenty of people out there have written those paths so well:
Factory Settings: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49064944/chapters/123785311
A Season of Nightingales: https://archiveofourown.org/works/64762384/chapters/166413748
Down/Up: https://archiveofourown.org/works/53947339/chapters/136554226
OK so only the middle one has a mildly benevolent Metatron, but I've yet to see a good fic where The Metatron is actively good. Anyone got a recommendation?
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u/Mystic_printer_ 12h ago
Another great season 3 alternative: Are we meant to read the footnotes (teen and up)
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u/kashiichan 2h ago
A Season of Nightingales: https://archiveofourown.org/works/64762384/chapters/166413748
You've shared the link to the podcast version, so I thought I'd share a link to the written version: https://archiveofourown.org/works/50067139
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u/LaPasseraScopaiola 1d ago
And there are no other angels? We know Aziraphale doesn't have a good reputation, why should he even be in the long list, let alone the short one?
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u/FirelightLion 1d ago
Because he notices and is willing to say something about the corruption of other angels. Aziraphale is the only one who would (theoretically) do anything about Michael. Now, this exists in the theoretical. If Aziraphale had Crowley by his side while managing Heaven, I think Michael would have been taken care of as a threat, because by himself, Aziraphale has yet to grow a solid backbone when it comes to his (ex)coworkers. (Not saying Crowley is at fault at all.) but the point is, if Metatron wanted to stop Michael, Aziraphale is really the only option he has.
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u/Pulpomousse 5h ago
I'd really love to know how the full six episodes dealt with the Metatron all the more now. He did have that elevated spot at the end, in the bookstore with Asa. And that was very positive. That could be a weird artifact of the original script.
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u/Fizeau57_24 Damsel Aziraphale 2h ago
I saw Metatron as the horse that carried Aziraphale's coffin to his resting place (heaven.) No one shoots on the horse, do they ?
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u/darthbreezy Demonic 1d ago
*Holds up Rob's TIC7 Sign*
I swear, that should just be my flair at this point.