Sandman, Good Omens, and the exceptional empathy of Neil Gaiman

Firstly, thank you so much for this! It made my day so much better. :) I do wonder, however, about your assertion that Crowley and Aziraphale do not experience physical pleasure. Gaiman makes it clear that both angel and demon love the Earth and worldly pleasures: food, drink, clothes, stuff in general and the having thereof... that's the main narrative tension of the first season, after all. They've been on Earth for too long according to their respective "head offices" and love the sushi and the wine and the music so much that they refuse to play along when it's time to shut it all down for Armageddon. Meanwhile, romantic love has been slowly creeping up on them for millennia, whether they've understood themselves as in love or not. Crowley just figured it out thanks to Nina's help, but I think Aziraphale's level of self-awareness around romantic love is still an ongoing question. (Michael Sheen believes that Aziraphale fell in love with Crowley in 1941, but did he *know* that he did? Love is kind of his job, but Aziraphale can also be super conflicted and/or super naive. I'm also married to the idea that Aziraphale has understood this about himself for a long time, but the call to service is so great that he forces himself to give Crowley up anyhow. THE PATHOS!) Gaiman shows them trying to puzzle out romantic love in humans in their efforts to get Nina and Maggie together, emphasizing just how the outside of that particular process they have remained for the last 6,000 years of living among humanity. They know that sexual pleasure can be part of that for humans. Will they ultimately decide to give it a try when they finally get to their HEA? (Which they'd freaking better...) Well, they've tried all of the other human things, so... (Please don't be mad at me, ace folks.) The book states that angels actually can have genitalia if they "make an effort." I see motivation for effort here. :) I highly recommend the analysis of your fellow YouTuber, Sendarya, on this point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sedZ6bgYH28&list=PLtmcFB5QAE_VWxJ4xq6p34J9Udz1wKwvv

My personal opinion is that, while Neil may not be gay himself he is certainly _different._ He is weird, he likes spooky and unusual stuff, he is a nerd, he doesn't fit. (Those are all good things in my book by the way) and so, I think he can resonate with the _otherness_ of the queer experience, even he he did not experience this particular one himself

Saiyasha