gintakas asked:

hey neil, i have been wondering how Crowley’s past life (? angel life?) was like, like what was his relationship with the Archangels. Also, i think someone brought this theory up, sorry if I am repeating, but what do you think about the theory saying that crowley might have been the Archangel Raphael?

neil-gaiman answered:

I think this: https://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/185332471341/neil-i-like-to-interpret-the-relationship-between

(And so people have them somewhere easily to hand, that one also links to this: https://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/169084845106/i-am-genuinely-sorry-to-bother-you-with-this-but  and, from August 2017 before we even started shooting, this https://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/164222681376/good-omens-a-gentle-reminder.)

[derobes]

Do you want this to sound passive aggressive to ward people off or is this miscommunication (on my part)? I think most people are asking for your personal headcanon while still accepting others’ at this point. Maybe your experiences have taught you differently and you are cautious now but to me every time this seems more and more as a “don’t bother me, doesn’t matter so why are you asking” and that you could just leave don’t you? I’m not trying to be mean, just not sure how to interpret these answers anymore

[neil-gaiman]

If it sounds passive-aggressive then I’m not doing it right. It’s meant to sound helpful, but firm. It’s also meant to indicate that I’ve been saying the same thing about Good Omens here for years, and on my blog at Neilgaiman.com for much much much longer than that, and also to be helpful to people who can’t easily find things, or even know they’ve already been answered, because Tumblr’s not the best website when it comes to finding things people have previously posted.

And I’m sure you weren’t trying to be mean. 

So…

I’m the author. My personal headcanon is Canon if I write it. It’s also irrelevant if I don’t write it in a book or put it on the TV. I’m not going to endorse fan theories, partly because I don’t like the idea of cutting off other, equally valid, fan theories. I’m also not going to endorse, or even read, fan theories (except possibly for ones with pictures about how Crowley got into the bathtub) because it’s just like reading fan-fiction with my own characters in it, which I don’t do: I’d hate to not feel comfortable writing about something in the future because someone else wrote that idea in the past.

If I had a huge and well-developed headcanon about Crowley’s background as an angel I’d hate to either talk about it in public, because I don’t, I write the things instead, or spend time with anyone else’s versions, because if I ever was going to write that story, that might put me off. 

Does that help?