History Literature / GoodOmens

* SidetrackedByTheAnalogy: Too many examples to list. It seems no one can make an analogy without being derailed by his or her listeners.

* WindsOfDestinyChange: Miraculous near-escapes work like this.
* WingPull: Aziraphale and Crowley, preparing for the final battle, sprout wings. It's kind of implicit that they had the capability, since they're an angel and a demon, but they've spent the entire story up to this point (apart from the prologue) in ordinary human-shaped bodies. It's only at the end when they face off against Lucifer and think they're going to die that they decide they might as well go out the way they came in.

* StrangelySpecificHoroscope: The local newspaper serving Tadfield has a surprisingly specific horoscope for Libra, on the day the apocalypse begins. This is just after a discussion of 17th century Bishop Usher's great contribution to Creationism, in which he conclusively worked out from Biblical revelation that God created Earth in October 4004 B.C.E. Which makes the Earth a Libra...

* AluminumChristmasTrees:
** Aziraphale's copy of the Bible that accidentally read "Thou Shalt Commit Adultery"? [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_Bible It exists]]. ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_errata All]]'' the misprints do, except the "Bugger-Alle-This Bible" and the "Charing Cross Bible". "Standing Fishes" included.
** People with names like "Thou-Shalt-Not-Commit-Adultery"? Actually happened among Puritans, with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praise-God_Barebone Praise-God Barebone]] being the most famous RealLife example.
** The Japanese "[[BlatantLies whale research]]" ship. Real Japanese whaling ships do skirt around laws by falsely claiming to be research vessels.

* MaleGaze: War's legs get mentioned significantly more times than anyone else's, and with complimentary adjectives attached.

* MaleGaze: [[ShesGotLegs War's legs]] get mentioned significantly more times than anyone else's, and with complimentary adjectives attached.

* UltimateEvil: [[spoiler:Satan never actually appears. He almost does at the end, but [[RealityWarper Adam]] prevents it.]]

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Anathema Device.

* SuspiciouslyCleanCriminalRecord: Aziraphale is an angel, and so scrupulously LawfulGood that he's been audited five times on the basis that anyone who turns in accurate tax forms on time has something to hide.

** Taken UpToEleven with [[spoiler: [[CoolCar Crowley's Bentley]] after going over the M25. It's on fire, has no wheels, and takes all of Crowley's concentration just to keep it from falling apart.]]

* AcquiredErrorAtThePrinter: Aziraphale collects misprinted Bibles, including the most famous one, the "Wicked Bible" or "Adulterer's Bible" from the 17th century that accidentally contained the commandment "Thou shalt commit adultery." While the Charing Cross Bible and Bugger-Alle-Thys Bible are invented, every other misprint mentioned in the novel, like the Standing Fishes Bible, is a real misprint.

* HoldYourHippogriffs: "Crowley blessed under his breath" because, being a demon, cursing under his breath wouldn't be appropriately transgressive.

* TimeAbyss[=/=]FishOutOfTemporalWater: Aziraphale hasn't updated his wardrobe since the '50s.

** As a duo, Shadwell and Madame Tracy are a foil for Aziraphale and Crowley: two people who initially appear very different, but who after a many years working in close proximity realize they're not so different after all.

* FootnoteFever: For backstory, digressions, gags, set-ups for [[BrickJoke Brick Jokes]]...

* GeodesicCast: See {{Foil}}, above. Also, each of [[spoiler:the Them]] corresponds to one of the [[spoiler:the Horsepersons of the Apocalypse. Adam is Death, Pepper is War, Brian is Pollution, and Wensleydale is Famine.]]

** Crowley's big inspiring concept of spreading a relatively small amount of mischief as wide as he can, so ''everyone'' gets a splash, is a shout-out to Creator/CSLewis' creation, the teaching demon Screwtape, who advocates ''exactly'' this as the human race gets ever-larger whereas there were only the same number of demons to deal with them. A lot of Crowley's modus operandi looks like he's read and learnt from ''Literature/TheScrewtapeLetters''.

** Somewhat ZigZagged in that Agnes fully foresaw this and only even published it for the single gratis copy to which an author is entitled. Additionally, her book is full of extremely specific and esoteric prophecies that are relevant entirely to her descendants and not to the broader world (for instance, her prediction for [[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy November 22, 1963]] was about a house falling down in King's Lymm and said nothing about Dallas). Regardless, she is noted as having been the world's worst prophet entirely because all of her predictions came true.

* {{Beelzebub}}: Manifests on behalf of Hell to try and convince Adam to restart the Apocalypse.

** Beelzebub and the Metatron even ''look'' virtually identical, only differing by the color of their flames.

* JesusTaboo: The book plays with every single Evangelical Christian trope and belief about the End of Days, with the notable exception that UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} never makes an appearance (despite Literature/TheBookOfRevelation being all about his SecondComing!) [[DevilButNoGod Even Lucifer and Beelzebub appear in person]], but no sign of Christ. Perhaps Gaiman and Pratchett didn't want to push their luck poking fun of Christianity ''that'' far. Or perhaps "the Metatron" is He in another guise. Or maybe [[spoiler: since the Apocalypse was averted, He didn't need to show up after all]].[[note]] The Rosicrucian school of Christian mysticism, however, enshrines an older school of thought: that the energy known as the Metatron is the "bridge" between the human and the divine, God made flesh and directly experiencing what it is to be human. An opinion in theology holds that while the Second Person of God nipped out of the office to spend thirty-three years on Earth, the Metatron was the incarnation of the divinity that Jesus largely left behind in Heaven whilst incarnating as human - effectively keeping the throne warm. The concepts of Metatron and Jesus Christ are very closely linked and can be seen as overlapping a lot.[[/note]]. He does warrant some mention, though -- when the Hell's Angels realize who the other bikers in the bar [[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse really are]], one exclaims, "Jesus Christ!" and another speculates that He's probably looking for someplace to park His bike.

* MindOverMatter: Aziraphale levitates a scooter.

* BadBoss: Crowley is a demon, so his superiors include [[ThoseTwoBadGuys Hastur and Ligur]], [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection Dagon]], Beelzebub, and Satan -- all of whom are nasty pieces of work and threaten to [[ColdBloodedTorture make him regret some of his choices]]. On Aziraphale's side, there's the Metatron -- the KnightTemplar {{Jerkass}} Voice of God.

* ThoseTwoBadGuys: Hastur and Ligur.

** Parodied by Crowley, who talks to his plants to encourage their growth. Topics include disappointment in growth rates and what happened to the last plant that didn't bloom. His plants are very tall, very green, and very frightened.

* TheAntiChrist: Adam is the Antichrist.
* AntiAntichrist: Adam again.
** [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged]]. [[spoiler:He's a mischievous kid who doesn't quite understand adult morality yet, but doesn't do anything really ''nasty''... then he gets angry at the way the human race is screwing up the world and decides to do something about it. For a bit, he becomes a crazed monster, willing to genocide the human race and build new, better people for him to play with. Then his human side regains control and he again becomes his essentially affable self, but still containing a dark well of evil threatening to burst through every so often.]]

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Young family's telephone number: Tadfield six double-six.

%%* MedievalMorons

%%* PairTheSpares

%%* ThePhilosopher: Crowley and Aziraphale.

%%* StandardFiftiesFather: Mr. Young. %%ZCE

%% ** Happens to Shadwell, who wakes up and thinks he's having an out-of-body experience because he sees his own body from above. After a few panicked seconds of trying to swim back to it, he comes to his senses enough to wonder why Madame Tracy has a mirror on her ceiling. %%Does not establish where he lost consciousness

%%* LovableRogue: Crowley.

* HumansAreSpecial: In contrast to angels and demons, who are described as being predisposed to being AlwaysLawfulGood and AlwaysChaoticEvil respectively, humans possess the ability to be either at any given moment. In fact, [[HumansAreGood humans are capable of greater virtue than angels]] and [[HumansAreBastards deeper malice than even the most sadistic of demons]], to the point where Crowley wonders why they even bother. It's that free will thing. It's a bugger. When Crowley read the user-end agreement that came with his computer, he was so impressed with the way it was worded that he sent a copy of it to the department of Hell that deals with soul-selling contracts, with a yellow sticky-note on it reading, "Learn, guys." [[spoiler:It is this very quality that makes Adam [[AntiAntiChrist reject his destiny and cancel the apocalypse before it officially starts]].]]