I have not been following the accusations at all and have no comments re: their credibility.
That said, with Terry Prachett dead, why would you bother with Good Omens at all without Neil? If he steps back, that should be the death of it.
The answer is money, I think
Well I don’t know anything about the accusations, but it’s a good move by him to offer his seat to avoid ruining Good Omens.
I’m almost completely out of the loop as well; I’ve heard people say that he’s denied the accusations but that there’s a lot of evidence against him, I’ve heard there’s not enough evidence against him, I’ve heard he’s admitted to some of it, with others saying he’s fully denied it, etc.
I’m kinda concerned about him stepping back though. I’m not sure how much of what made Good Omens good was Neil Gaiman. If he was the driving factor that made the series high-quality, then maybe he should finish the series (season 3 was going to be the last) and then step down.
I’m conflicted. If the accusations are correct then he’s a highly manipulative piece of shit at worst, clueless scientology victim in serious need of thorough professional deprogramming at best (his family growing up were scientologists, and I’ve seen some speculation that growing up in scientology probably had a huge effect on his concept of consent and there may still be things he thinks are “normal” that need to be addressed).
As such, if the accusations are true, then the right thing to do would be to let him go. At the same time though, Good Omens was written by Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman. It’d suck to see the last season end up trash because Gaiman stepped away and whoever replaced him didn’t have the skill to properly finish the adaptation; and it’d be especially tragic if we later discovered that the accusations were false or high embellished (the latter would still make him a creep and a sex pest, but not a full-blown manipulative serial abuser).
he should finish the series (season 3 was going to be the last) and then step down.
There was an article shared recently (could be here, could be diffetent community) that the production on S3 halted, might be he is stepping down so that it may get moving and see it done at least.
I’m not close to Gaiman or the fandom or the story, at all … but I did manage to pickup on some of the whisper network through mastodon, where I read a couple of posts or blog posts by people who seemed to be close to the fandom and even be friends with him (in one case). The vibe was very much he’s likely a womanising guy and has been his whole life and likely has standards “below” what most would consider normal. There also seemed to be a bit of introspection about how much the fandom around him was kinda culty and that that clearly enabled whatever he did, as a common enough pattern seemed to be that someone would go through something unseemly, but because it was Gaiman and all their friends were fans, they presumed it was them or their fault and never wanted to open up about it.
Like I said though, this is essentially gossip, so don’t take it seriously or anything (also I don’t have any links or anything).
For those out of the loop:
The stories have broken from a podcast from Tortoise Media called ‘Master, the allegations against Neil Gaiman’. I have not listened to any of it, but have read these two articles from Tortoise, which provide summaries of events and his responses:
https://www.tortoisemedia.com/2024/07/03/exclusive-neil-gaiman-accused-of-sexual-assault/
In three of the cases, he claims their relations were all consensual. In two of them, there are NDAs, and one of them is described in some detail in the second article.
In the last one, he claims he misread a situation and stopped as soon as he realized it.
It’s not looking good for him, that is for sure. I think he’s hoping he can deny everything and it will blow over after some time, but it keeps getting worse. It doesn’t seem like anything will result in criminal charges, but there is a lot of smoke around him.
I’m still a fan of his work; it’s been a huge influence on my life, so it’s causing a lot of difficult feelings.
The absolute, almost guaranteed didn’t happen best case is that everything was consensual and Gaiman is just the kind of 60 year old who goes after 20 year old women which is… still not a good look, and I’m also having conflicted feelings
I do not trust Amanda palmer
Amanda Palmer doesn’t have anything to do with what’s going on right now.
