@rhapsodycrowley said: What’s the main difference? I haven’t read the book yet
the trappings are there, sure: witch and professional descendant. but from there they diverge. there’s the obvious american vs british, of course, which in itself is going to leave them with significantly different upbringings. and while i definitely appreciate them making tv anathema a woman of color, you KNOW they were imagining a white woman when they wrote the book, so this also leaves different anathemas. although in this particular i’m going to say it’s definitely a change for the better.
while book anathema doesn’t really get much info on her financial status, and she does seem comfortably well off (enough to go rent a cottage while apparently jobless, though it could be argued that part of it is because she knows the apocalypse is coming so why bother worrying about money?), she does not necessarily seem wildly rich the way tv anathema is. and while both are possibly from family investments based on predictions (apple vs 1929 stock market/transistors), tv anathema just feels on a whole other level because we get to see her house. and wow. that is a rich person house alright.
we also miss out on a lot of book anathema’s practicality and intelligence. not that tv anathema isn’t, but we don’t get to see it so much. basically what i am saying is the bread knife. we were robbed of anathema’s bread knife! (“She was a witch, after all. And precisely because she was a witch, and therefore sensible, she put little faith in protective amulets and spells; she saved it all for a foot-long bread knife which she kept in her belt.”) she threatens aziraphale and crowley with it! i also very much do not imagine book anathema in the sort of witchy victorian goth getup that tv anathema goes around in. i do love it, aesthetically, but it’s not what i’d call practical. (though also radio anathema, at least, has hair that’s a funny color, probably, which i love.)
book anathema also talks about her phd. just 19 and already has a phd! and that brings me to my next point. her phd is partially related to her family, as in she talks about how one of her ancestors is related to it, but it’s not only about her family. it’s spread to cover other related but different people as well. and in this way, book anathema is interested in agnes’ book and her family history because it’s something she thinks is interesting.
in the book, 8-year-old anathema is reading the book under the covers past her bedtime because she wants to. her name is anathema not because it was foretold, but because her mom thought it was pretty and didn’t know what it meant. in the show, 10-year-old anathema is reading the book because her mother is forcing her too. the whole family is cult-like, surrounding the prophesies because it’s What They Do. tv mom is very concerned with impressing upon anathema her place in the world and what her future holds and how she has to do it. (“You see? She’s got special plans for you, mi amor. Agnes gave us the easy job. We just had to make sure everything was good for the family. You’re the one that’s going to have to save the world.”) book anathema’s family, as far as we know, doesn’t have anything like this sort of behavior. yes agnes’ book is important to them, and yes they study it, but you don’t get the same sense of pressure on anathema about it.
the anathema/newt stuff plays out more or less the same, and i’m not at all a fan of it either way, but that’s a subject for another time.
as a whole, the tv show just doesn’t seem to give anathema as much space to be herself, and cuts things that maybe don’t add to the plot but do add a lot to her characterization. it’s very much the aziraphale and crowley show, and while i do love that, it comes at the expense of some lovely anathema moments. and i keep defaulting back to book/radio anathema because i guess i haven’t quite processed tv anathema? and i’m never giving up that bread knife.
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