via
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Casual reminder that Aziraphale is physically very strong.
My evidence is thus:
That is an effing big rock and he’s carrying it as if it’s made of cardboard. Ergo, Aziraphale looks soft, but can and will carry Crowley if he feels the urge with no visible effort.
Ya boi is lifting a big ass rock without breaking a sweat. Fanfic opportunities, people!
Broke: Aziraphale doesn’t look scared when Crowley slams him against a wall because he knows that Crowley would never actually hurt him.
Woke: Aziraphale doesn’t look scared when Crowley slams him against a wall because he knows that if he really wanted to fight back the only hard part would be making sure that Crowley didn’t get too badly injured.
Since this has taken off, I’m really craving a scene where Aziraphale punts Gabriel through a wall. Like Gabriel tries to come after him and Crowley and Crowley freaks but Aziraphale is 100% Done with Heaven and just levels him completely with a single blow that sends Gabriel hurtling. Then he dusts himself down, retrieves the blinking Crowley and keeps walking, pondering where they should go for afternoon tea.
Ten minutes later, Crowley shakes him by the front of his coat. “Where the fuck did that come from?!?!?!?”
“Everyone forgets,” Aziraphale says, as if he hadn’t hurled the Archangel Gabriel twenty feet across the road and through a shop front, “I was the Guardian of Eden. They don’t give that job to featherweights.”
Archangel “lose the gut” Gabriel is shooked
INTERESTING…
So, I hadn’t decided (until right about now) how physically strong I think Aziraphale is. I’ve hovered somewhere around ‘surprisingly impressive due to his thick build, but not professionally-trained strong.’ I never thought about this thing with the rock.
So either A) he IS just plain ridiculously strong, or B) he was using a miracle to augment his strength
(or temporarily make the rock lighter) at the time.
One wonders which of these things is true, so let’s consider the following:
Aziraphale was issued a flaming sword, and we never see any other angel using one.
Gabriel brings up the topic of the sword in the jogging scene, and it’s apparently important enough that he goes so far as to interrupt his jog and teleport himself backwards to ask Aziraphale about it.
The quartermaster brings it up, wondering ‘why does that name seem familiar.’ Aziraphale’s name is familiar to this dude just because he was issued a flaming sword? That seems a bit strange. That feels like if a real-life army quartermaster was baffled at a vague recollection of issuing someone a rifle. That wouldn’t happen unless no one else was given a rifle.
The Bible does actually only mention one flaming sword, placed in the Garden of Eden as a ward after Adam and Eve were cast out. Obviously Good Omens deviates fairly sharply from the Bible canon right away, but I think it’s safe to assume that Aziraphale’s sword is wholly unique in the Good Omens universe. He wasn’t issued ‘a’ flaming sword, he was issued THE FLAMING SWORD. (… which seems incredibly appropriate for THE SOUTHERN PANSY.)
I rather doubt that such a unique weapon would be issued to someone who didn’t have the knowledge AND the natural physical power to use it to its full potential.
There is a post somewhere on tumblr (I dunno where, but would gladly add a link to it here if someone shows me where it is) that points out a few screenshots of how Aziraphale uses the sword, too. Whoever wrote it has some knowledge of proper sword form, and points out that the way he holds the grip and positions his feet as he readies for battle indicates that he does know what he’s doing.
And while probably any angel could use a miracle to make themselves ‘as strong as they currently need to be,’ it would make sense to give the sword to someone who doesn’t have to spend mental resources in combat concentrating on actively imagining that he’s overwhelmingly strong.
In conclusion: I think we do indeed have some fic opportunities here. I dunno why, but I just suddenly had this odd mental image of Crowley coming out of his flat to discover Aziraphale bench-pressing the Bentley.
Oh goodness I now want a fic in which Aziraphale has a total Valjean moment, and ends up lifting a car (the Bentley or Dick Turpin, probably ;-) ) or a cart (or a lorry…) in order to save someone.
Or, better yet, not even rescuing someone but retrieving a kid’s ball or something while he’s distracted.
Aziraphale always hated meeting with Heaven. They left him shaken and uncomfortable, so much so, he scarcely noticed the small child on the ground, scrabbling under a car until he all but tripped over them.
“Oh! Oh, I’m sorry!”
The child looked up, red faced and tearful. “My ball!” He motioned miserably under the car. “I can’t get it.”
“Oh.” Aziraphale reached down absent-mindedly and caught the edge of the car, hoisting it up. “There you go.”
The child stared at him wide-eyed.
“Your ball?”
The child nodded wildly, scrambling under the car and fetching the ball, then scrambled back out, hugging it against his chest. “Are… are you a superhero?”
A little of the icy chill of Heaven thawed away in the warmth of such human wonder. “What?”
The child looked at the car, held up at a 45 degree angle from the road.
“OH!” Aziraphale dropped it so hard that the alarm started shrilling. “Oh… oh, dear.”
The child reached out and took his hand. “Don’t worry,” he said, seriously. “I’ll keep your identity secret.” He beamed, then bounded off, hugging his ball.
Aziraphale looked awkwardly at the car, then glanced around and hastily miracled every CCTV camera in the area, just in case.
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