1. Prelude
[1.1] May 2020. On a street corner in Soho, there is a bookshop. It is not a regular bookshop; it is owned by one A. Z. Fell, or Aziraphale as his friends call him, an angel and principality of Heaven. Aziraphale is introverted and prefers the company of his books over people. So, when England's first lockdown measures came into place to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, he saw it as an excellent opportunity to catch up on his reading and learn how to bake his favorite cakes. For him, the lockdown has been a blessing. The only thing that would make it even better would be if his favorite demon were there with him.
[1.2] On a residential street in Mayfair, there is a flat. It is not a regular flat; it is owned by one Anthony J. Crowley, or just Crowley as his friends know him, a demon sent from Hell to lead humans into temptation. Crowley enjoys the company of others and all the distractions a big city like London has to offer. So, when the lockdown started, he began to—quite literally—climb the walls with boredom. (He thinks the primary benefit of being able to transform into a snake is the ability to slither up all sorts of things and drop onto unsuspecting passersby. He's all for a bit of chaos and terrified screams.) For him, the lockdown has been an unmitigated curse. The only thing that would make it bearable would be if his favorite angel were there with him.
[1.3] One day, Aziraphale rings Crowley to see how he's coping in lockdown. "I'm bored. I'm so very, very bored. Transcendentally bored," Crowley complains, confusing Aziraphale. Crowley is a demon, after all; shouldn't he be out and about, tempting people into breaking the rules? "I could do that," says Crowley, "but if I did, well, people might follow my bad example and get ill and die." Although he's a demon, his concern for humanity outweighs the job he's been put on Earth to do. After hearing about Aziraphale's baking exploits—"It turns out that I have a whole cookbook section here in the bookshop, and I got peckish"—Crowley's desire for company gets the better of him. "You know," he says tentatively, "I could hunker down at your place. Slither over and watch you eat cake." This suggestion flusters Aziraphale. Although he desperately misses his demon, and nothing would make him happier than to have Crowley's company, he worries about going against the restrictions put in place to keep the humans safe. "I-I-I'm afraid that would be breaking all the rules!" he stammers. "Out of the question." On the other end of the phone line, Crowley's heart drops with disappointment. He decides that, if he can't spend the lockdown with his angel, he will sleep through it instead. "I'm setting the alarm clock for July," he tells Aziraphale. Then, in a softer tone, "Goodnight, angel."
[1.4] When the dial tone reaches Aziraphale's ear, he realizes that Crowley has hung up on him. Panic rushes through Aziraphale. What has he done? Is he really willing to go without seeing Crowley until July? He thinks about the endless months stretching out before him, and his anxiety rises as he imagines them without Crowley by his side. Would it be so bad to make an exception to the rules? After all, they are both celestial beings who can't catch or transmit the virus. So really, what would be the harm? Reaching for the rotary dial, his hand begins to shake as he dials Crowley's number again. When the demon picks up on the first ring, Aziraphale sighs with relief. "Ah…it's me…again…So, about your suggestion about coming over…"
2. Introduction
[2.1] I created the above story to serve a dual purpose. First, it is a summary of "Good Omens: Lockdown," a YouTube video that inspired the fan fiction that is the primary focus here (note 1). Good Omens (2019–2025) is a comedic telefantasy adaptation of a book of the same title written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. The first season of the program follows Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and Crowley (David Tennant) in the years and days leading up to Armageddon. "Good Omens: Lockdown" (hereafter "Lockdown") was released on May 1, 2020, amid the first lockdown in the UK. This video, posted on the late Terry Pratchett's YouTube channel, was written by Neil Gaiman and features the voices of Sheen and Tennant. In it, Aziraphale and Crowley have a phone conversation about the importance of following health guidance, while the camera provides close-ups of various parts of Aziraphale's bookshop. It ends with Aziraphale refusing Crowley's offer to spend the lockdown together and Crowley deciding to set his alarm clock for July. The video has inspired a large corpus of fan fiction in which fans take its narrative and transform it in various (and often surprising) ways.
[2.2] Second, while the above story recapitulates "Lockdown," including verbatim dialogue, it is not merely a summary: It is an example of fan fiction and how fan fiction can transform the original story. "Lockdown" invites fan fiction by being what Balaka Basu (2016, ¶ 3.1) would call a "selvage" text:
[2.3] A coherent, firm, detailed, and consistent framework with unfinished edges that invite, provoke, and support the reader's response in the form of fan-made extensions, which make explicit what is only implicit within the source text. In fabrics, selvages are the unfinished yet structurally sound edges that were neither cast on nor bound off; they beg for continuation. Their very lack of neatness, as well as their incompletion, ironically allows the foundation of the previous material to remain firmly established; thus they illustrate how, in narratives as well as in fabric, openness within solid structure endorses continuation.
[2.4] Selvage texts, therefore, encourage fans to pick up loose threads and weave alternative interpretations and continuations. "Lockdown," by having a "solid structure" and a feeling of "incompletion" (specifically, an unsatisfying ending for fans of the celestial duo), creates an ideal selvage edge.
[2.5] Maria Lindgren Leavenworth argues that there are three methods fan writers use when transforming texts, selvage or otherwise: "reduction, amplification, and transmotivization" (2015, 43). These are, respectively, deleting or minimalizing details, exaggerating aspects of the canon, and extrapolating characters' motivations. Beyond just referring to the source text, the above story also amplifies details of the video (describing Aziraphale's and Crowley's places of residence), focuses on the interiority and motivations of the characters (such as Aziraphale's thoughts after Crowley hangs up the phone), and reduces elements of the video (imagining what would happen if Aziraphale was less strict about following the rules and changed his mind about allowing Crowley to come over). In doing so, the above story contains some of the key elements found in the "Lockdown" fan fiction I explore. Leavenworth's transformational methods are particularly suitable to my analysis, wherein I examine fan fiction through the lens of personalized engagement with the health messaging in the "Lockdown" video.
[2.6] Jessica S. Ruthven (2016), in her work surrounding the use of theater in the promotion of HIV/AIDS awareness, argues that it is vital for health messaging to be personalized instead of normative and aimed at a wide community. Ruthven focuses on theater because it accesses what she terms the "speculative register" of health messaging, an "embodied form of intervention that encourages participants to think about the relevance of messages to their own lives and speculate about what their future actions might be" (73). As I will demonstrate, Ruthven's speculative register applies just as well to fan fiction. Since the publication of Ruthven's article, studies have continued to show the potential benefits of personalizing health messaging in a variety of contexts, including teenage sexual health (Chernick et al. 2019), vaccine hesitancy (Watermeyer et al. 2022), and COVID-19 public health measures (Fullerton et al. 2022).
[2.7] Notably, with Ruthven's work on theater in mind, Francesca Coppa argues that fan fiction has a stronger connection to theater than to literature "and can therefore be seen to fulfill performative rather than literary criteria" (2006, 336). As Coppa writes, "If traditional theater takes a script and makes it three-dimensional in a potentially infinite number of productions, modern fandom takes something three-dimensional and then produces an infinite number of scripts. This is not authoring texts, but making productions—relying on the audience's shared extratextual knowledge of sets and wardrobes, of the actors' bodies and their smiles and movements—to direct a living theater in the mind" (243). Coppa's argument that fan fiction is "a living theater in the mind" with countless possible productions is harmonious with Ruthven. Taken together, Ruthven and Coppa stress the participatory, performative aspects of theater and fan fiction and how these aspects help create personalized, nuanced versions of normative health messaging.
[2.8] Theater's participatory mutability, according to Ruthven, allows for "fissures" in the original health messaging to be located and discussed (2016, 73). "Fissures" in this context refer to moments in the original message that are "incommensurable with how many people see themselves" (79). Put another way, fissures are moments that fail to resonate with the needs and lived experiences of the message's target audience. Although it is Ruthven who most notably uses fissures in this context, others have also applied the concept. Lisette Burrows (2010), for example, found that New Zealand children could identify fissures in healthy eating and exercise messaging, potentially demonstrating the children's ability to question the personal relevancy of the messaging. As I will discuss, Ruthven's fissures complement Basu's selvages, with both concepts emphasizing the need for expansion of specific texts.
[2.9] Therefore, I ask: In what ways do fans transform aspects of "Lockdown," considering that the video conveys a clear, normative, and prescriptive health message? And how do these transformations give insight into and comment on any fissures (Ruthven 2016) in the health messaging?
[2.10] I am informed by a thematic analysis of fan fiction, which is framed by Ruthven's (2016) appeal to make health messaging personal, Coppa's (2006) comparison of fan fiction to theater, and Leavenworth's (2015) transformational strategies. I argue that "Lockdown" fan fiction complexifies and provides clear caveats to the health messaging in the video. The fan fiction draws into question the normativity of the health message by expanding the message to be more inclusive of personal and social circumstances, such as queer identity and mental health struggles. After outlining the process of finding and thematically analyzing the fan fiction, I assess it based loosely on three key themes and illustrate a potential fissure in the original health messaging. Specifically, the fan fiction locates the following fissures: the cost of following the rules; situations that may necessitate breaking the rules; and the need for hopeful, positive representations of life continuing (and even being optimized) during lockdown.
3. Methods
[3.1] I sourced the fan fiction from Archive of Our Own (AO3), a fan fiction repository associated with the Organization for Transformative Works. I chose AO3 based on its size (hosting over 13,320,000 works at the time of writing), its popularity among fans and fan scholars alike, and my familiarity with the site.
[3.2] The search phrase "Good Omens: Lockdown" returned 473 results. To see what types of "Lockdown" fan fiction resonated most with readers, I chose a sample based on popularity. I first sorted the results by kudos (AO3's version of likes) and saved the top ten stories. I then repeated the process based on hits (number of views). After replacing two stories that were not Good Omens–related and removing duplicates, sixteen stories remained (note 2). The sample is limited by its size and the fact that it only encompasses one fan fiction website. However, the sample nevertheless provides insight into the most impactful "Lockdown" fan fiction on AO3.
[3.3] The stories underwent three rounds of coding in NVivo. The first round was inductive and framed by my research questions, while the second round refined the themes. The last round deductively used the themes identified in the second round to code the stories again, resulting in three key themes. The first theme, Prosociality and Information Dissemination, involves characters discussing public health guidelines and engaging in prosocial behavior. The second key theme, Wish Fulfillment, denotes Crowley and Aziraphale's ability to do things (and ignore rules) during the pandemic that humans could not. Finally, the Pandemic Life theme encompasses moments where fan writers explore Crowley and Aziraphale's daily lives during the pandemic. As mentioned above, what follows are explorations of how these key themes may, by locating fissures, nuance the normative health message in "Lockdown."
4. Locked down in hell (aka the cost of following the rules)
[4.1] During the pandemic, people had to perform individual acts, such as wearing a mask or self-isolating, to protect their wider community. These new behaviors were neither pleasurable nor comfortable, making it especially important for health messaging to frame these behaviors as being more for others (to keep the vulnerable safe) than for oneself. However, many segments included in the Prosociality and Information Dissemination theme go beyond reiterating the health messaging found in "Lockdown." Instead, through transmotivation, they often focus on Crowley and/or Aziraphale's thought processes regarding the messaging.
[4.2] Furthermore, while characters often follow health guidelines in the fan fiction, some stories draw into question the applicability of following the rules. For example, some fan writers focus on the emotional cost of the lockdown for Crowley (and, occasionally, Aziraphale). While the "Lockdown" video elides the emotional cost of the pandemic—besides Crowley's complaints about being bored—a story titled In Search of Your Glory adds a focus on mental health:
[4.3] Crowley was going mad with boredom and longing […]. It was horrible to think of another abysm of uncertain time until he saw the angel again, but he promised himself to respect the angel's resolutions. […] The problem was that, after two months, Crowley was already fucked up with his loneliness and his spiraling thoughts. Being in his flat, alone, crushed by the eternal silence and emptiness, made him feel trapped and…Fuck his damned soul…He was sad. (NuriaSchnee 2020) (note 3)
[4.4] In the above segment, fan writer NuriaSchnee (2020) poignantly delves into Crowley's headspace following his phone call with Aziraphale. Aziraphale's adamant refusal to cohabitate with Crowley during lockdown has a dual meaning in this story: Aziraphale rejects Crowley's offer to come over, and he rejects Crowley. At the start of the fan fiction, Crowley is distraught with longing for the angel, an emotion he believes to be unreciprocated. In their story, NuriaSchnee explores the compounding psychological effect of the lockdown on Crowley's perceived unrequited love for his friend and Aziraphale's subsequent concern for Crowley (note 4).
[4.5] During the pandemic, health messages such as "Lockdown" generally emphasized community safety and, in so doing, elided the very personal cost of abiding by the rules. These normative guidelines emphasized the rightness of these actions, with any actions deviating from these being labeled as dangerous. Ruthven equates normative health messaging with what she terms the "imperative register," where "targeted populations cognitively process the information but then set it aside as inapplicable or nonactionable in their lives" (2016, 73). For Ruthven, the imperative register is unable to make health messaging meaningful to individuals. NuriaSchnee's story interrogates this normative approach by drawing attention to how adhering to self-isolation rules contributes to Crowley's deteriorating mental state, a state that is already in jeopardy through his unexpressed (and repressed) desire for Aziraphale.
[4.6] Ruthven suggests that the opposite of the "imperative register" is the "speculative register," which, as defined above, involves people speculating about a message's personal relevance (2016, 73). The speculative register allows for fissures in the normative health message to be identified and discussed. The "Lockdown" video exists between the imperative and speculative registers, as it contains specific normative guidance while also being a selvage text that encourages fan engagement. NuriaSchnee's story, however, moves the "Lockdown" narrative fully into the speculative register by locating fissures and complexifying the public health message. Jennifer Watermeyer et al. found a similar need for vaccine health messaging to have "personal meaning" while giving people "opportunities to engage and ask questions [about the health message]" (2022, 1174). I contend that fan fiction may be a way to do just that: to make a health message personally relevant and give space for those with questions to speculate about the message's applicability to their lives.
[4.7] The way that NuriaSchnee's story complexifies the health message is akin to Forum Theatre, a type of theater that Ruthven argues can personalize HIV/AIDS messaging: "In scene replay, audience members are invited to […] [shout] 'Freeze!' to halt the scene when an alternative action is possible. Once the scene is halted, the audience member is invited to tap out an actor, take his or her place, and resume the scene by acting out an alternative" (2016, 76). This "tapping out" process in Forum Theatre can likewise be seen in the "Lockdown" fan fiction. NuriaSchnee saw something that they wanted to transmotivate about the ending of "Lockdown." They shouted "Freeze!", tapped out both Crowley and Aziraphale, and speculated about an alternative way "Lockdown" could have continued. This process, furthermore, may not be as figurative as it first sounds. As Coppa writes, "Fan fiction directs bodies in space," and, as such, "one could define fan fiction as a textual attempt to make certain characters 'perform'" (2006, 235).
[4.8] NuriaSchnee taps out characters and speculates about how following the COVID-19 guidelines might play out in Crowley's life. Their story illustrates a vicious cycle where two factors—the pandemic and Crowley's perceived need to keep his desire for Aziraphale a secret—feed off one another and exacerbate the situation. This cycle becomes more poignant later in the story when Aziraphale finds out that Crowley is dying of a broken heart:
[4.9] I could hunker down in your place, slither over and watch you eat cake.
No.
I'm afraid that would be breaking all the rules. Out of the question. I'll see you when this is over.
No. No.
Right. I'm setting the alarm clock for July.
No.
Good night, angel.
"It's my fault," [Aziraphale] babbled when the realization hit him […].
"What did you mean with that it was your fault?" Anathema asked […].
"I…I've been neglecting him…For so long," he stuttered, his voice rough. "The last time we talked he…He wanted to come over to my place because…I suppose he missed me, maybe, and…I refused. I've…I've broken him." (NuriaSchnee 2020)
[4.10] Due to Crowley's preexisting feelings of isolation caused by his desires for his friend, following the rules endangers Crowley, putting him at risk of dying. Aziraphale spends a significant portion of the story trying to save Crowley, who has a mix of a literal broken heart and suicidal ideation. The mental health component of this fan fiction is further intensified by Crowley's suicide and divine resurrection at the end of the story. NuriaSchnee's fan fiction speculates about how following the rules can compound preexisting personal and societal issues, such as being closeted and experiencing self-stigma, thereby leading to unintended harm. This speculation gains poignancy through the fact that rates of suicidal ideation increased during the pandemic and were associated with social distancing and lockdown measures (Farooq et al. 2021).
[4.11] However, this story is not explicitly against following COVID-19 health measures. It even models the importance of social distancing by Aziraphale not going to Crowley's flat to check on him until it is safe to do so. Similarly, although Crowley struggles with his complex emotions, his resolution to respect Aziraphale's wishes (and, in turn, the COVID-19 regulations) is stronger than his anguish. By focusing on the need to follow the guidelines, NuriaSchnee's story is mostly located in the Prosociality and Information Dissemination theme. However, it complexifies the necessity of following the rules by finding a fissure in the original message. The story addresses this fissure—the failure to acknowledge the mental health consequences of lockdown—by weaving out a speculative continuation about what happens after the selvage text ends. This continuation of the narrative, although dark and often distressing to read, might be more reflective of the struggles that certain groups of people, such as those who are closeted or who were prevented from accessing their communities (queer or otherwise), went through while following lockdown measures. NuriaSchnee's story thereby points to, and weaves a patch over, an element of the "Lockdown" video that was not attuned to an intersectional lived reality of many during that time.
[4.12] NuriaSchnee's story is an affective—and effective—example of "Lockdown" fan fiction that questions the usefulness of health guidance in keeping certain populations safe. It demonstrates a negative relationship between compliance with the rules and one's mental well-being. This fan fiction is an affirming critique of the health guidance presented in the "Lockdown" video, engaging with it through a "yes, but…" framework: "Yes, it is important to follow the health guidelines to reduce the spread of COVID-19. But what about the mental health repercussions for those who are already struggling with preexisting social vulnerabilities?" NuriaSchnee's story does not provide an easy answer to this question. Instead, it is left up to the reader to speculate how they would have handled, if in Crowley or Aziraphale's position, the disjuncture between following the rules and protecting the mental health of oneself or a loved one.
5. "Nice and accurate" transgressions (aka breaking the rules)
[5.1] The segments of stories that fall under the Wish Fulfillment theme feature Crowley and Aziraphale breaking the rules or otherwise engaging in activities that are unavailable to humans. These stories effectively, as per Leavenworth (2015), reduce the prescriptive need to follow the rules demonstrated in "Lockdown." For example, a story by darcylindbergh, socially-approved distances (2020), focuses on the intimate desires of Crowley and Aziraphale—desires that necessitate breaking the rules:
[5.2] "I love you, and I'm sick and tired of all these rules saying I can't love you the way I want to go about loving you, which is to say—well, in person."
Crowley was quiet for a moment, and then said, very slowly, with the barest hint of a smile beginning somewhere in it, "Angel, are you asking me to come over?"
"I am."
"You're asking me to break the rules?"
That one was harder, but Aziraphale managed it. "Break all the rules."
"You want to hunker down through lockdown with me?"
That one, actually, was easy. "Crowley," Aziraphale said, "I want to hunker down through the rest of forever with you."
[5.3] In this short excerpt, darcylindbergh breaks from the prescriptive adherence to the rules found in the "Lockdown" video. In this story, the idea of breaking the rules morphs into a gesture of queer love and affection. While NuriaSchnee added nuance to, and caution about, adhering to the rules, the stories under this theme instead complexify breaking those rules.
[5.4] In the above quote, there is a dichotomy between following the rules and Crowley and Aziraphale's ability to fulfill their romantic desires for one another. Aziraphale's initial comment—"I love you, and I'm sick and tired of all these rules saying I can't love you the way I want to go about loving you"—at first seems to be referring to outdated norms around queer relationships. However, darcylindbergh ties Aziraphale's comment back to the pandemic by having him utter the following qualifying statement: "which is to say—well, in person." This statement increases the homoerotic context of this exchange, implying Aziraphale's desire to physically consummate his love for Crowley. Simultaneously, the statement indicates that the lockdown measures function as another barrier for couples (queer or otherwise) to navigate.
[5.5] socially-approved distances also explores the moment of rule-breaking, a moment that likewise intertwines the pandemic with queer romance:
[5.6] Crowley stopped the socially-approved six feet away, and shoved his own hands into his pockets.
"Hi, angel," he said, and then, before Aziraphale could take it back, just in case, "I love you too."
"Oh, Crowley," Aziraphale said, and then he rushed forward, crossing that space—one two three four five six—and then Aziraphale kissed him.
And kissed him.
Really kissed him. Rather thoroughly.
"Oh," Crowley said, dazed, when they finally parted, but Aziraphale was holding him, smiling up at him, and Crowley couldn't help but smile back. "That's one way to break quarantine."
"The most nice and accurate way," Aziraphale agreed, and then he did it again. (darcylindbergh 2020)
[5.7] Here, darcylindbergh experiments with a different degree of compliance with the lockdown restrictions. The speculative components of this fan fiction differ from the speculative components of NuriaSchnee's. Unlike NuriaSchnee, darcylindbergh does not take the canonical decision made by Aziraphale and spin it out into an alternative conclusion, but instead sees what would happen if something major changed about the story—namely, Aziraphale reversing his decision about Crowley coming over. In other words, while NuriaSchnee provides a speculative continuation of the video, darcylindbergh creates a speculative change to it. Darcylindbergh, like NuriaSchnee, effectively taps out one or more characters and replaces them with versions that can explore an alternative outcome to the "Lockdown" narrative. Both stories are examples of Ruthven's speculative register; however, rather than adding a new element of compliance, darcylindbergh speculates by adding a distinctive act of disobedience.
[5.8] The above quote associates breaking the social distancing guidelines with Crowley and Aziraphale's first kiss, thus queering this act of disobedience. There is likewise an emphasis on the physicality of this interaction. Coppa maintains that "the actor's body […] is the medium of even nonerotic fannish storytelling" and that, like theater, "bodies are the storytelling medium, the carriers of symbolic action" (2006, 236, emphasis added). Reading this scene symbolically, it is notable that Crowley is reticent, stopping six feet away and putting his hands in his pockets. It is instead Aziraphale, an angel and the one who insisted on following the rules in the first place, who both invites Crowley over and closes the distance between them. If the roles were reversed, it would be possible to say that Crowley's demonic nature tempted Aziraphale, thus casting an element of sin on the encounter. However, Aziraphale's angelic nature provides the opposite effect: This exchange is cast in virtuous, even righteous, light. The counting of Aziraphale's footfalls as he breaks the socially approved distance to approach Crowley accentuates the rightness of this scene, a rightness that is in direct conflict with the rightness of the normative health message in "Lockdown." The quick succession of numbers creates a sense of anticipation, of a release found through the breach of the invisible space between the two characters. Each successive footfall represents an increasing noncompliance with the rules and a celebration of queer love in the time of COVID-19. Aziraphale's comment that kissing is "the most nice and accurate way" to break quarantine is a reference to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, both the original subtitle of Good Omens and a book within its story world. More importantly, however, this comment seems to imply not only that celebrating queer romance might be a reason to break, or at least bend, quarantine rules, but that breaking quarantine with a queer kiss is superior to other forms of breaking quarantine—including heterosexual kissing. This fan fiction thus responds to the "Lockdown" video by connecting, and equating, an expression of nonnormative romance with breaking the normative lockdown restrictions.
[5.9] However, not all stories that combine breaking the rules with Crowley and Aziraphale's romance have a comparable upbeat tone. For example, a story by zerodaryls, titled Take Me Down to the Very Root of My Soul (2020), includes a mental health component. In the story, unbeknownst to Crowley, Aziraphale Falls from heaven and becomes a demon because of his love for Crowley. This puts Aziraphale into a fragile mental state, which Crowley quickly realizes when he stops by unannounced to check up on him:
[5.10] "I know you're there, Aziraphale. […] You're probably on the other side of this door, debating whether to break the rules and let me in. […] I used a miracle to get here; no one saw me, I swear." […]
"Oh, Crowley…," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. […] "Of course I want…I want nothing more than to be in your company, Crowley, believe me, I…I…" He broke down in sobs. […]
"Right. Aziraphale, I'm coming in. I'm opening the door, myself." He softened his voice. "Stand back, angel."
"No!" Aziraphale panicked […]. "You mustn't! P-please, please, Crowley, you can't—I can't—I'm alright, really!" (zerodaryls 2020)
[5.11] The reader, fully aware of Aziraphale's predicament, experiences this moment differently than Crowley, who is under the impression that the angel is stubbornly following the health guidelines to the point of causing himself distress. By Aziraphale adamantly refusing to let Crowley in, this scene enforces social distancing in a similar way to NuriaSchnee's. However, Crowley busts down the door at the end of the scene, going against the health guidelines and Aziraphale's wishes alike. Through this action, the scene becomes a certain type of wish fulfillment: that somebody would break the rules if their loved one's mental well-being hung in the balance.
[5.12] Zerodaryls consequently locates a fissure in the "Lockdown" video's health messaging by suggesting that there are situations where breaking the rules is necessary. The fan fiction weaves a new section onto the unfinished edge of the "Lockdown" selvage text, a section that, like NuriaSchnee's, finds fault in the lack of mental health awareness in the video. As Basu states, "When readers and fans point out that something about a particular narrative installment is wrong […] they are implicitly insisting that there exists a version that is right, in which they believe" (2016, ¶ 3.3). It may be the case that the Good Omens fandom tends to emphasize mental health across its fan fiction more generally. If so, the Good Omens fandom would not be alone: Adrienne Raw (2019) and Jennifer Rogers (2019) both note the number of mental health–focused stories in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and The Hobbit fan communities, respectively. However, following Ruthven and Basu, it is notable that stories such as zerodaryls's point out the fissure/narrative wrongness of a normative health message and insist on a version that is sensitive to, and accommodating of, the need to break the rules to protect a loved one's mental well-being.
[5.13] Likewise, in her discussion of the similarities between Shakespearean productions and fan fiction, Coppa argues that the constant restaging, reinterpretation, and reproduction of Shakespeare's plays "supplement the texts, adding meanings that Shakespeare never intended and making them meaningful to twenty-first-century audiences" (2006, 238). Coppa points to how fan fiction, like productions of Shakespeare's plays, can translate a text to make it resonate with the values of modern audiences. In extension, fan fiction may adjust a modern story to include elements meaningful to a certain community. Lauren S. Chernick et al. (2019) and Madison M. Fullerton et al. (2022) note a similar need to personalize health messaging to individual interests and audience characteristics, respectively. It may therefore be possible to suggest that darcylindbergh's and zerodaryls's stories, through their speculation surrounding queerness, mental health, and situations that necessitate breaking the rules, might bring "Lockdown" closer to contemporary values and interests (or at least those of the Good Omens fandom).
[5.14] It is important, however, to remember that the fan fiction that falls under the Wish Fulfillment theme is just that—fiction. By tapping out the characters to explore alternative decisions, the stories show and advocate for certain noncompliant behaviors, not enact them in lived reality. Thinking about health messaging as defined by Ruthven and Coppa's connection between theater and fan fiction, these stories may be useful because they offer a fictional space to experiment with varying degrees of compliance. In so doing, the stories make the health messaging more personal without the dangers associated with experimentation in the real world. The wish fulfillment elements in these "Lockdown" stories, therefore, do not erase the pandemic; they instead seemingly help writers and readers alike to live with it.
6. A match made in Eden (aka quality of life during lockdown)
[6.1] "Well. Whatever we are, I'm disgustingly happy about it," [Aziraphale says].
"Me too. You know…I reckon another apocalypse could happen, and I wouldn't even mind. I'd just stay right here with you, in those ridiculous pajamas. Could die happy." (HotCrossPigeon 2020)
[6.2] In the above fan fiction, Fancy Patter on the Telephone, Crowley joins Aziraphale mid-lockdown (using his ability to travel through phone lines so he would not "have to step a single demonic toe outside") and the two of them spend the remainder of the lockdown in romantic (and sexual) bliss. This story by HotCrossPigeon (2020) provides a utopic version of life during lockdown, one that initially appears to be at odds with the mental health–focused ones featured above. Instead of the lockdown being a source of stress, anxiety, and loneliness, it creates a time and a space for Aziraphale and Crowley to acknowledge and enjoy their love for one another and to embrace new opportunities for self-actualization. HotCrossPigeon points to a fissure in "Lockdown"—its melancholy ending—and instead imagines an idealized version of lockdown existence. This idealism is twofold: that Crowley and Aziraphale can break the rules without repercussions, and that lockdown existence can be as good as HotCrossPigeon makes it out to be. The story nevertheless connects to the stories discussed previously through its own take on mental health during lockdown. Specifically, it and several other stories encompassed by the Pandemic Life theme are preoccupied with speculating about optimizing one's mental health and quality of life during a lockdown.
[6.3] HotCrossPigeon is not alone in making speculative optimistic changes to the "Lockdown" narrative. In Laura Shapiro's This must be the place (2020), Crowley also comes over mid-lockdown—with similar utopic homoerotic outcomes. Other fan fiction in the sample, such as rowenablade's I guess, I just don't know (2020), have Crowley and Aziraphale wait until the health guidelines allow for the joining of households to move in together and take the opportunity to explore their love for one another. Regardless of the stage in lockdown when Crowley and Aziraphale move in together, fan fiction like HotCrossPigeon's, Laura Shapiro's, and rowenablade's, all of which transform the "Lockdown" narrative from a tragedy to an idyllic homoerotic romance, can be understood by drawing upon Coppa (2006). She argues that "most people happily watch televised repeats—identical replayings of dramatic action. How much more interesting would different performances of the same scripts be if the actors and directors explored the limitations of the text and tried to elicit different readings, different embodied meanings?" (237).
[6.4] Although Coppa (2006) refers to television programs here, her claim can be applied to the oversaturation of health messaging during COVID-19. Although people may not have happily watched as health guidelines were broadcast, they may have become acclimatized to the normative and serious tone of such messages. Fan fiction that transforms lockdown existence into a homoerotic idyll finds the selvage edges of the video's health message and elicits different embodied and affective meanings of being in lockdown. Following Coppa, these stories all elicit uplifting and heartwarming (it is hard not to smile while reading parts of them) embodied and affective meanings, demonstrating the potential for intimacy and a blossoming relationship during lockdown.
[6.5] Although some stories are content to have Crowley and Aziraphale as lovers and/or boyfriends, there is also a widely held belief in the Good Omens fandom that Crowley and Aziraphale are or should be married. Following Leavenworth (2015), fan fiction imagining Crowley and Aziraphale in a relationship and/or getting married amplifies their implied desires for each other (their romantic desires were implied in the first season of Good Omens [released in May 2019] but did not become canon until the second [released in July 2023]). These romantic extracanonical additions belong to the Good Omens "fanon," a term Kristina Busse describes as the "solidified shared interpretations" that are "widespread enough to get used repeatedly in new stories as if they were canon" (2017, 114). In three of the "Lockdown" stories, the couple stage a marriage ceremony for themselves in isolation. In these stories, the fan writers tap out the canonical versions of Aziraphale and Crowley and replace them with their fanon equivalents. For example, the following scene from further on in zerodaryls's Take Me Down to the Very Root of My Soul (2020), after Aziraphale has accepted his new demonic nature and he and Crowley are living together in lockdown, features the two of them spontaneously exchanging rings:
[6.6] "My dear," said Aziraphale […], "will you do me the honor…" […] "of officially becoming mine?"
[…] [Crowley] looked up and grinned at Aziraphale. "I do."
Aziraphale chuckled. "You will," he corrected, slipping the ring onto Crowley's finger […].
Crowley whimpered, just a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing, and pressed closer to Aziraphale. His husband. His. […] "Right," he said. "My turn, then."
Aziraphale smiled and sat up straight […].
"Just, let me think about it," Crowley said […]. He sucked in a breath, then clicked his fingers and produced a ring from his palm. […]
"Crowley, it's lovely," said Aziraphale, his voice dripping with love. "Place it on my finger, please."
Crowley did so quickly […]. "So…that it, then?" Crowley wondered aloud. "We just…consider ourselves married?"
"I think so," Aziraphale said with a firm nod. "We've really no need for any paperwork on the matter; we'd long outlive its relevance. I think…our simple exchange just then ought to count."
[6.7] The COVID-19 pandemic marked a significant disruption in wedding ceremonies, with an estimated 73,400 ceremonies postponed in the UK between March 2020 and August 2020 alone (Probert and Pywell 2021). These disruptions caused couples to consider whether they "valued getting married as opposed to having a wedding" (677). This distinction is vital for the above quote, as Crowley and Aziraphale see lockdown as an opportunity to celebrate their relationship instead of an obstacle to it. Often, in non-"Lockdown" Good Omens fan fiction featuring the two of them getting married, many of Aziraphale and Crowley's friends attend the wedding. This "Lockdown" fan fiction, however, features a pandemic-compliant, intimate, informal, and spontaneous marriage ceremony that occurs in Aziraphale's bookshop and involves the two of them as the sole attendees.
[6.8] Alongside Crowley and Aziraphale's unconcerned attitudes about missing out on having a larger wedding, zerodaryls also has them reject the idea of getting lawfully married. As Aziraphale notes, they transcend such human-centered customs. In doing so, they reject a historically heteronormative practice, which has only recently opened up in certain societies for queer individuals, thus queering their ceremony. At the same time, the couple still use the vocabulary of "marriage" and "husbands," thus framing their ceremony with normative conceptualizations of what a marriage should look like. This becomes especially prominent later on in zerodaryls's story when Crowley stages a more traditional ceremony, including suits, vows, and lots of rose petals, all conducted in the isolation of Aziraphale's bookshop. Aziraphale and Crowley's marriage, by occurring in an altered format because of the lockdown, their celestial natures, and their queer relationship, is simultaneously traditional and untraditional, lockdown-compliant and lockdown-defiant. The liminal location of this marriage ceremony between these various poles enables it to be a utopic representation of what is possible in a lockdown marriage.
[6.9] The emphasis on the positive, utopic aspects of lockdown found in the stories discussed directly contrasts real-world concerns faced by couples during the pandemic. Yet, the unfailing optimism of celebrating queer relationships in lockdown, up to and including queer marriage ceremonies, also signifies a clear response to the "Lockdown" video. Just as, according to Coppa, fan fiction enables "plots, themes, and endings that would never be permitted on network television" (2006, 237), these stories complexify the normative health message by speculating about how to follow the rules and have life continue, and even be optimized, during lockdown. They create an aspirational ideal for how to overcome the pervasive rhetoric of fear, loneliness, and anxiety surrounding the pandemic (including in the "Lockdown" video) by depicting scenarios where Crowley and Aziraphale adapt positively to the new realities of lockdown life, together.
7. Conclusion
[7.1] My assessment was organized to loosely coincide with the three key themes found in my thematic analysis of the Good Omens fan fiction, each of which connected to a way that the fan fiction complexified and personalized the health messaging in the "Lockdown" video. Although there are elements of affirmation throughout the selected fan fiction, the stories do not simply endorse the original health messaging. Instead, they deal with complex and contradictory emotions (both enjoying the lockdown and hating it) and complex situational intersections (such as mental health issues and queer relationships) that draw into question the prescriptive health messaging found in the video. Portions of each of the three themes—Prosociality and Information Dissemination, Wish Fulfillment, and Pandemic Life—locate fissures in the original "Lockdown" video by, respectively, drawing attention to the possible harms of following the rules, imagining possible scenarios that might necessitate breaking the rules, and writing over the melancholia of the video with utopic reimaginings of lockdown existence.
[7.2] This transformation process makes it so that, following Busse, fan writers become "cocreators of meaning" (2017, 100). Wolfgang Reißmann et al. concur, adding that cocreation "underlines the collectivity of authorship: Nobody owns texts and ideas alone—nobody produces them on his or her own alone—nobody can fix meaning alone" (2017, 21, emphasis added). In this way, fan fiction and the original text form "a larger body of knowledge" rather than act as items on a "hierarchy" of meaning-making (Mayer-Schönberger and Wong 2013, 6). It follows that (re)producing, transforming (through transmotivation, reduction, and amplification), and complexifying health messaging within a supportive fan community, instead of just being the receivers of it, may increase feelings of ownership and levels of buy-in relating to health messaging among fan writers and readers. This process may allow readers and writers to, like Ruthven's encounter with Forum Theatre, "think about the relevance of messages to their own lives and speculate about what their future actions might be" (2016, 73). Future research in this area should consider examining how public health authorities might scale up and utilize the perspectives offered by, and lessons learned from, fan fiction.
[7.3] The findings can be summarized by Ruthven's (2016) appeal to make health messaging personal. As discussed above, Ruthven's argument that theater can access the speculative register of health messaging applies just as well to fan fiction, especially considering fan fiction's connection to theater, as maintained by Coppa (2006). Fan fiction allows fans to test out and add nuance to different configurations of health messaging and compliance with that messaging. It is therefore possible to suggest that both personalizing a health message (such as by using a narrative/speculative approach) and personalizing engagement with the message (such as through fan fiction that speculates about different configurations of compliance and noncompliance) may work together to identify and close fissures in and expand the selvage edges of health messaging, thereby increasing the message's resonance for an intersectional audience. Together, these strategies may help us survive any Armageddons (or, as we mere humans call them, pandemics) the future might have in store for us.