#the four horsepersons

[peculiaritybending]

There seriously is not enough appreciation for the them and the four horsepersons in the good omens fandom for my liking.

[turnipwithatophat]

We need the four horsepersons back. I need them. The Second Coming is, well, coming (hah), so it’s about time they show up again! I miss them so much, I need more content of them.

[hjbirthdaywishes]

September 22, 2023

Happy 48 Birthday to Mireille Enos.

[argentinesunshine]

was reading about the mayflower pilgrims and came across this treasure trove of names

losing my mind over this list of 17th/18th century quaker names

[in-love-with-my-car-zine]

The Minor Four Horseperson’s Bikes... now, there are some bikes with a story behind them. Pigbog, Greaser, Skuzz and Big Ted were definitely causing their own kind of chaos before they decided to follow after the real Horsepersons. After all, Big Ted hid out from the law in a hotel for a while with nothing to but read a Bible left behind by some dude named Gideon. This is why he’s so well-versed in Revelation. Too bad these four didn't make it into the show. Don't ask me why three guys in this gif have the same bike, but the fourth rider's is different. I have no idea.

Sign-ups are happening now. Or you can call them applications. We don't care. We just reserve the right to refuse entrance to anyone if we feel they will not be a good fit. Click here for the form.

[kimberleyjean]

The Price of a Life: Death and Dying in Good Omens

In this meta I want to take a closer look at one of the prominent themes I’ve spotted running through Season 2 of Good Omens. While S2 has been billed as the gentle and romantic bridge towards S3, in a few ways it actually had darker tones than S1. If that’s your cup of tea - read on!

What is the value of a human life? 

This is a question which has been pondered by philosophers far back into the reaches of history. More recently, economists have attempted to put a price on human life, which is then used when justifying the various societal costs associated with governing a population (i.e. healthcare, education). These two different schools of thought are sometimes at odds. Immanuel Kant proposed that humans have invaluable dignity, but not a price - being “not merely something to be used for the ends of others, or traded on the market”[1]. In opposition, value of life calculations, by definition, put a price on the value of an individual.

What side does Good Omens S1 take?

In Good Omens Season 1, one of the significant moral dilemmas, at least for Aziraphale and Crowley, was about whether or not to kill the antichrist.

I've never actually... killed anything. I don't think I could. Not even to save everything? One life... against the universe.

Following their failed attempts to influence Adam’s childhood development, once at the airfield, Aziraphale believes it to be a foregone conclusion that Adam should be killed - eliminate one to save the many. Of course, their attempts fail and Adam faces off against Death, the Four Horsepersons and Satan himself, eventually getting his own way. However, the moral question posed about killing Adam never reaches a definite conclusion.

With the flashback scenes that S1 added to the book, we are shown this same theme when Aziraphale and Crowley attend the crucifixion. The crucifixion is shown in agonising detail here, and gives us an empathetic look at the sacrifice of one life for, presumably, the overall good of humanity. (Although, what metaphysical impact Jesus’ death had in the Good Omens universe isn’t exactly clear). We see Aziraphale and Crowley stand idly by while the Great Plan is enacted.

Does S2 do things differently?

While Good Omens S1 dabbles lightly in the philosophical question about the value of life, Season 2 picks up this thread time and time again - sometimes attaching some numbers!

One of the key mysteries of present-day S2 is the mammoth miracle performed by Aziraphale and Crowley. Registering on the scales at 25 Lazari, this is 25 times the cost of human life in Heaven's accounting system. Presumably, one Lazari is the amount used when Jesus resurrected Lazarus of Bethany four days after his death. As we'll see, this attaching of numbers to human lives is then repeated throughout each of the minisodes.

Firstly we have the flashback sequence with Job and his children. Aziraphale makes the argument that just doubling the number of new children wouldn’t adequately compensate Job and Sitis for the loss of their existing children - since they “quite like the old ones”. The value of human life is not a simple accounting exercise and one life cannot be substituted for another, in the case of the people you love - they’re priceless.

We see this same idea demonstrated again throughout the Resurrectionist minisode. We first meet Elspeth MacKinnon when she is exhuming a body to sell, in order to buy her and her partner a slightly better life worth living. However, the surgeon Dalrymple is not above haggling over human remains. To him this is a business transaction, in which dead bodies are worth no more than five pounds a pop. To Dalrymple, the cost of saving future lives is that others should risk the grave gun gathering bodies which he may then dissect.

Aziraphale is first opposed to anyone being dug up, but then is won over by Dalrymple’s argument, at least until Wee Morag is killed and suddenly for sale. As Crowley says, echoing the Job minisode, “it’s a bit different when it’s someone you know”. In opposition to Dalrymple’s accounting exercises, and, indeed, the 90 guineas with which Aziraphale buys Elspeth's life, Crowley is offering an alternative view. A life is of higher value when it is someone we, personally, know and care for.

We also witness this theme during the 1941 flashback / Nazi-zombie minisode. The magic shop owner warns Aziraphale that he is about to take on a death-defying trick - one which people have died trying, no less! “Your life is worth a lot more than seven pounds five shillings,” argues the shopkeeper. Instead, it turns out that a customer’s life is worth about 27 pounds and five shillings, since he more than willingly accepts that offer - “on your head be it!”.

As human beings, the price we are willing to place on an individual life, how much we are willing to sacrifice for that person, is all dependent on how well we know them.

“He’s just an angel I know”

But it’s the knowing that makes all the difference.

“It’s a bit different when it’s someone you know”

So, for his life, what price are you willing to pay?

What if it was “one life... against the universe”?

Lastly, death is the price that all humans must pay, no matter what. As the Metatron asks at the end of S2 - “Does anyone ever ask for Death?”. But those are thoughts worthy of a future post.

Thank you to everyone at the @ineffable-detective-agency as always, but especially @lookingatacupoftea and @embracing-the-ineffable for their feedback on this post.

[1] Nussbaum, M., & Pellegrino, E. D. (2008). Human dignity and bioethics: essays commissioned by the President's Council on Bioethics. JAMA, 300, 2922.

[jotun-philosopher]

Professional Peas: A short GO meta

So short, in fact, that it might not even need a read-more thing!

So! I had a revelation a while back, but all I could remember of it when I came to write it down was ''frozen peas' -> 'peas is our profession'', connecting @vidavalor's thoughts about peas in GO's delightful layers of symbolism with one of Agnes Nutter's prophecies.

This meta: (Non-Frozen) Peas discusses peas among others in the context of the delightfully creative and innuendo-laden Ineffable Cant. Vida's got other metas as well (the titles and locations of which I have unfortunately blanked on) about Crowley's 'frozen peas' comment meaning on one level that it's good to talk about one's trauma with one's fellow ducks.

Prophecy 3477: Lette the wheel of Fate turne, let harts enjoin, there are other fyres than mine; when the wynd blowethe the blossoms, reach oute one to anothere, for the calm cometh when Redde and Whyte and Blacke and Pale approache to Peas is Our Professioune.

In S1, it's a clear reference to Newt and Anathema getting together and the Four Horsepersons arriving at Tadfield Airbase. In S2/Finale terms, though ( @vidavalor has been very convincing in re: the NaAProphecies still being relevant -- go check out those posts too!), it could well refer to the Ineffables FINALLY being safe to be openly together and having the calm and peaceful physical/emotional space to just be with one another and start working on their respective stocks of frozen peas -- making peace/peas their profession, if you will (related: here and here)

[anthonycrowley]

human endgame is a sticky subject because a lot of people think it goes against the fundamental point of the book (or show, i guess) but i personally don't believe that. or like, i guess i do, but in a way that it kind of makes sense anyway. i think the fundamental point of the book, the reason we're all here, the reason aziraphale and crowley are the compelling characters in this story instead of, like, the four horsepersons of the apocalypse, is because you see how human they have become via their internal monologue and history. they're basically human. and i think some people are like 'well if they're basically human anyway then what's the point' the point is that there are fundamental parts of being a human that they cannot experience unless they go all in. my hashtag theory is there's going to be a choice and they're going to choose to be human. like in fucking pinocchio or some shit. and it's going to be hashtag moving and hashtag beautiful and go on to piss off soooooo many of the tumblr girlies.

[theniftycat]

oh no, all the four horsepersons of the Fandomcalypse are upon me!

Meta, Fanfiction, Fanvideo, and Fanart.

that's it, I'm now lost to the world.

[rareomens]

Rare Omens 2024 Day 2

We can't get enough of these Good Omens characters:

The Horsepersons of the Apocalypse!

Who will feature? A pair? A trio? All four? Share your fanworks of these two and tag us.

Post to the Rare Omens AO3 collection: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Rare_Omens

[trashboatprince]

so what is exactly Good Omens?

Good Omens is the story about an angel and demon who have lived on Earth since the Garden of Eden six thousand years ago, and eleven years before the main events the demon is given the task of taking a basket to a satanic nunnery in order to start the first steps of The End of Days. The demon and angel then spend eleven years trying to raise the contents of basket, a baby, but they fucked up. They're doing this because they love Earth and don't want The War.

The story is about the Antichrist, who is destined to destroy the world during the week of his eleventh birthday. He is raised in a tiny, perfect English village with his three best friends and his dog. He doesn't know who he really is or what his destiny is, but he is going to have the most interesting week of his young life.

The story is about a witch, who calls herself an occultist, who is ruled by the only accurate book of prophesies in human history, written by her ancestor, the last true witch of England. There is also a witchfinder who can't touch electrical items without completely destroying them who is going to make her see the world a little bit off kilter from her normal straight path of seeing it.

There are also the Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse, a psychic/lady of the evening, a witchfinder who takes his job too seriously but sucks at it, nuns, humans, aliens, raining fish, demons who like to lurk, a demonic prince, the voice of God, and a whole cast of other little bits and bobs of characters.

Basically, it can be summed down in a few ways:

This is a story that is about love, and how it can influence the world around you, in a sense. Be it platonic, familiar, romantic, any of the forms of love. It's hard to explain, but it's a strong element of the book, the show, and the radio version.

It is also a story about not following what is expected of you, to do what you think is truly best. Good and evil are not white and black, they are gray, they are complicated, you can't have one without the other. You can be good, you can be bad, you can be very perfectly, wonderfully human as both.

The shorter answer is: a demon, an angel, and the Antichrist walk into the Apocalypse and make it all go pear shaped.

Take it with a grain of salt, this is how I see the story, others will tell you differently, which is good, it means we all see the story in a way that makes sense to us.

[turnipwithatophat]

Ok, little rant here, I feel like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are so underrated! I need more content of the four. I CRAVE it. All of their designs are TOP NOTCH, and really demonstrate their corresponding sin. Like Pollution?? WAR?? Foaming at the mouth.

And, I have a question.

Did the four of them die get inconveniently discorporated during the finale of season 1? Where did they go? Knowing they’re 100% NOT going to Heaven, did they go back Hell or erased completely? I feel like they’re not dead, since Earth kinda needs them, but I just don’t know.

[hjbirthdaywishes]

September 12, 2023

Happy 41 Birthday to Yusuf Gatewood.

[fa1len]

CROWLEY, ON PRINCIPLE, DID NOT DO WELL IN BOOKSHOPS. he especially did not do well in bookshops when he and a certain angel were not on speaking terms, which was at the very least currently up for debate. he most especially did not do well in the bookshop of one man in particular, who liked to stock far too many copies of things like dante's inferno for what crowley could only assume was the irony of the thing. ( or maybe he didn't; maybe that was just something that happened to him, some cruel trick of asmodeus their master the father of lies, because apparently he had time for the minutiae where vespin @vchloras was concerned ... or had done for awhile there, anyway. ) this was a chore he hated, in summation. ripping his bentley across the eldritch vastness of the american southwest like he was one of the four horsepersons, only to deliver a brief that could have been done over the radio if only they'd committed one way or the other ... but who was he, besides the being that had committed the original offense when it came to asking things he shouldn't, to question how things were done? he did not speak: they'd been telling him he talked too much, to let his demonic presence speak for itself, and he wouldn't care to listen if it weren't this. asmodeus got weird about this, so crowley stood in the doorway silently and tried to affect hellish menace in the way he held his handbag, feeling rather like shax from processing. on the whole, it worked about halfway.

[in-love-with-my-car-zine]

Nothing like a bike to carry you all over your world, from Hogback Woods to the old quarry. I remember all the places I went on my bike as a kid with my friends. It was the '80s. We were all shoved outside to run around like feral children as long as it wasn't raining. Chances are pretty good nobody would have noticed if we biked off to an airbase to battle the Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse. But enough about my generation's neglectful childhood. Let's see some Them in action.

Applications are now open for In Love with My Car, a zine celebrating the vehicles of Good Omens. Click here to go to the form.

[ao3feed-ineffablehusbandz]

Four Horsemen

Four Horsemen

by ohsoineffable

Words: 185, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 4 of Ineffable May 2023

Fandoms: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley (Good Omens), The Them (Good Omens), Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse (Good Omens)

Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens), Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse & The Them (Good Omens)

Additional Tags: The Night After the Almost Apocalypse (Good Omens), Post-Apocalypse, Dialogue Heavy, Ineffable May 2023

From https://ift.tt/WFhvtAN https://archiveofourown.org/works/47040844