There's been something gnawing at me quietly about the ending of Good Omens ever since I read it (which was a good long time ago -- but slow and steady wins the race*), and I'm writing it down now before I forget again.

On that last Sunday, Aziraphale and Crowley are trying to figure out the big picture, being the only ones of the Earthly cast left that remember, the others quietly sort-of forgetting due to Adam. A "tall man feeding the ducks" interrupts them ("Because it's all -- all --" "INEFFABLE." "Yeah. Right. Thanks."), whereupon they, too, forget. Sort of.

Most people seem to agree that the tall stranger is Death. There's some evidence to that: GO!Death is clearly the Death from Terry's Discworld, if chillier and less friendly.** Discworld!Death speaks in the Allcaps/Smallcaps of Doom, and when people meet him casually (i.e. when he's not carting them off to the dark desert), they don't quite remember him or have a vague impression of a tall, rather underfed fellow.

Here's my confusion. On my first reading, I thought the tall stranger was God. Honestly, I still do. I don't know if Terry or Neil have said anything to confirm yea or nay, but my reasonings are listed below:

For one, Death isn't the only one in GO that speaks in allcaps; Crowley's anonymous superiors do so when interrupting the radio broadcast. While this doesn't prove anything in and of itself, it suggests that TALKING LIKE THIS isn't a definite clue as to the tall man's identity.

(Mind, I read GO long before I got into Discworld. Anyway, Death talks in Smallcaps in Discworld. It's possible that other editions of Good Omens format the text as such and clear up the issue, but my only reference is the one copy right here.)

Also, Crowley and Aziraphale don't just forget who they were talking to, but their entire conversation. Actually, they forget in the same "I guess something happened but it's nothing to worry about" way that Anathema and Newt and the Them did. I don't think Death has that power.

Besides, God is listed right there in the Dramatis Personae. Along with Satan, who just-almost-barely makes an appearance himself. It seems terribly fitting to me, that God presents himself in a benignly mysterious way, and his only line of dialogue is the word that everyone attributes his actions as being.

It also gives the impression that he's checking up on the world, newly rescued from destruction from chance and luck and dogged refusal of destiny, and comes along to check up on two of his angels.*** I'm still working on why A and C were made to forget, but it feels like the most logical reason why they forgot right that moment.

Besides, it means Good Omens' God feeds duckies. And there ain't nothing wrong with that.

On a lighter and different note, I swear Crowley had something to do with this one.



* Or has the smug satisfaction of feeling like they won, at any rate.

** Presumably, our world's version of him doesn't have an Albert or a Susan. Aww...

*** Just so happens that one of them's gotten a little lost and sooty over the years.