Good Omens

                                    Good Omens 

A poster that announced Season 2

    The Good Omens fandom is a group of people who get together based on their shared enjoyment of the series produced by Prime Video sharing the same name staring Micheal Sheen and David Tennent, which is based on a novel called Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. The series follows an angel named Aziraphale and a demon called Crowly, who despite being on opposite "sides" of the heavens, are friends and have formed their own side, that is focused on the people of Earth, and how much they love the planet. The main plot of the series follows their journey of saving the world from armageddon, despite the fact that both of their "sides" want the world to end. After they stop armageddon in season 1, a far more cozy season 2 lets us see the development of their relationship into something more, possibly romantic, until they are eventually ripped apart from one another, leaving the viewer helpless amongst the heartache we are left with. With season 3 being quickly announced after the end of the second season, fans have high hopes that they will finally get their happy ending. The fandom itself does many things to engage with the series, including writing fanfiction, cosplay, creation of fan art, and even talking with one of the authors of the original novel on Tumblr.

    If you go onto the once-popular website, fanfiction.net, a simple search of the phrase "Good Omens" will have your results numbering over 300 original works of fanfiction. Many of these works are from back in the early to mid-2000s,  around the peak of this website's use, even though the original novel was released in 1990, and the Prime Video series was not even a dream in the heads of these fans. Some of these stories were what they call "one-shots" which are stories that are all written in one post, and some are works that are published in chapter installments, which could be released as often as every couple of days, to once a month. A quick search on the now incredibly popular fanfiction website Archive of Our Own, or AO3, of "Good Omens" leads you to over 40,000 results, many of which were released after the creation of the Prime Video series in 2019, which reignited the love of these characters for a younger generation of readers and viewers, as well as giving everyone who had ever loved the novel before the time of the television series an official visual representation of the characters they once loved as well as a renewed fervor for the story. AO3 is host to many different works of fiction, which can include a lot of crossover topics, alternate universes, ship/romantic content between the two main characters, and sometimes even more triggering content. These members of the fandom use their talents in writing to create even more content for other members while they wait for more official content. In the wake of the ending of the second season of the show, many people have also taken it upon themselves to write a happy ending for the characters that they love, in case the producers were not going to go forward with the production of season 3. 

My Halloween Costume, a Cosplay of Crowly from Good Omens

    The cosplay community of the Good Omens fandom is also very alive and well. People will make costumes of the characters that they love from the series or novel, whether they are perfectly screen-accurate, or not, and they are welcomed by everyone in the community. In fact, my now partner and I went as Aziraphale and Crowley for Halloween this past October, this photo is one of the ones we took for our Halloween Photoshoot with our friends, in all of our different costumes. People will post photos and videos of themselves in cosplay and in character to attract more people who enjoy Good Omens and show how committed they are to their enjoyment of the series. Some people will even go so far in their costume-creation process as to completely sew new garments and take apart and reconstruct wigs, to look as accurate as possible to the characters they see on screen. 

A piece of fan art, found on Tumblr of the main characters from Good Omens

    Many people will also create beautiful works of fan art based on the imagery that we see in the show. Some of these are illustrations of the characters in scenarios that have not happened in the actual canon of the show, but the fandom wishes they could have seen with the actors, and some are even short comic strips with conversations between characters that seem to be in character for them. Many of these incredible works of art will take them hours to create, so they are showing true commitment to the fan community by taking this time out of their lives to participate in such a way. They will also post these works on many different websites, like Tumblr or Instagram,  to help engage in these communities and show others their interpretation of these characters. This particular image example comes from Tumblr, where I have linked the original post. These artists are doing wonderful things for the community by giving the common viewer images of what could have been with the series and even things to hope for for the next season of the show. 

    One of the authors of the novel, and the screenwriter for the television series, Neil Gaiman, is also very active in the fan scene, by actively engaging with his fans via Tumblr. He looks at their art, fanfiction, and cosplay, and encourages them to make more. He answers questions and helps the fans to create theories of what will happen next in the series. Many of his posts are sarcastic, but many of them are genuinely answering the questions that different members of the fandom have for him in regard to the things that we have seen so far in the series. He is also often times one of the first sources for new news regarding the production process for the television series, stating that fairly shortly after he had his contract renewed for a third season of Good Omens, he had already begun writing the script and that he would update the viewers of when filming would begin. 

    The Good Omens fandom has created such a positive environment for new viewers of the show, as they just want to share the things that they love with others. As one of the fans of this series, I can say that I definitely felt incredibly welcomed when I went to look for more content related to the series, especially when I mentioned cosplaying as one of the characters for Halloween in a fan space. I was encouraged to share pictures and videos of the work I had done for my partner and my costumes, and even given tips on where I could find certain costume pieces online. I can safely say that this fandom is one of the most kind that I have ever engaged in and that I would highly recommend that anyone interested in works of fantastical fiction, similar to this, or even those who are not normally interested in high fantasy, but are looking for something new to watch, should read the book or watch the television series, and welcome themselves into this fandom. 

Works Cited

Gaiman, Neil. “@neil-Gaiman on Tumblr.” Tumblr, 16 Sept. 2011, www.tumblr.com/neil-gaiman.

“Good Omens Wiki.” Fandom, goodomens.fandom.com/wiki/Good_Omens_Wiki. Accessed 1 May 2024.

Hansoeii. Look at You, You’re Gorgeous! 2023, Tumblr.

“Search Good Omens.” FanFiction, www.fanfiction.net/search/?keywords=good+omens&ready=1&type=story. Accessed 1 May 2024.

Works, Organization for Transformative. “Search Results.” Archive of Our Own, archiveofourown.org/works/search?work_search%5Bquery%5D=good%2Bomens. Accessed 1 May 2024.