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Four Horsemen – Death

This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series Four Horsemen

Four Horsemen

The Grim Reaper, Ereshkigal, the pale rider… it’s the fourth horseman (or woman, as you’ll hear) in a series of four: DEATH! This episode Joe, Toren, and Kevin take on the anthropomorphic personification of death throughout history and popular culture.

Music: “O Death” by Dock Boggs

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uY0ofqJur8

Series Navigation<< Four Horsemen: War

24 Responses

  1. The “Hogfather” TV miniseries was pretty good, I thought. Death was not voiced by Christopher Lee in this one, but the philosophy scene with Lucy at the end was done well.
    (KINDA SPOILERS)

    Speaking of Death, there’s a whole book in the Discworld series where he retires and works as a hired hand during the wheat harvest. 😀 His technique of cutting each strand separately is a bit odd, but he’s surprisingly fast that way.

    1. Agreed. They’re doing we’ll with the Pratchett mini series. Going Postal was really good too.

      Also on Death, Pratchett had a Death of Rats too, a little skeletal rat in a black cloak that would run around with Death when there were rodents to dispatch. I also loved that Death’s white horse was called Binky.

        1. Generaleesimo, Sorry to hear that; I had sympathy for the character Rube.

          Derek – some eps are so-so, but the whole premise of “everyday supernatural” has a charm to it, and some of the deaths are hilarious! Too bad the execs who took it over didn’t seem to get it.

          K

  6. And let us not forget about the Castlevania series, in which you defeat Dracula’s ol’ lacket Death pretty much every other game.

    Surprisingly anticlimactic fights, too! It’s kinda weird.

    1. Some street theatre troop needs to run with this….I image Grim Reapers showing up wherever smokers congregate, or some teenagers are replicating their favorite Jackass stunts…
      K

  12. Are you going to do an episode on birth? That’s some pretty nasty stuff. It could be awesome. Also, I’m a pregnant lady, so it could really terrify me.

  13. Childbirth is definitely on the list, but we might not get to it before you pop. We’ll just continue terrifying you with everything else that happens in the world.

    PS – I think the worst word in the english language is episiotomy…… One man’s opinion.

  14. I asked my cartoon-loving boyfriend, and he said that in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, everybody sees Death, but they’re not really afraid of him- it’s just that nobody in their universe really seems to respect him. (I haven’t watched a lot of it, as I didn’t really watch cartoons while growing up, so I don’t know how accurate that is, I’m just going on his word!)

    As a happy goth chick, Neil Gaiman’s Death has a very special place in my heart. She’s also the easiest Halloween costume ever when you have my wardrobe 😛

  15. Spoilers for you:

    The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy: Everyone CAN see him, but it’s one of those “adults are really stupid” kind of shows and most of the time, they don’t realize who/what he is except for humorous effect.

    In Death Takes a Holiday: He struggles the whole movie “Will she love me for the REAL me?” blah, blah, blah, and her father is all “She doesn’t like YOU, SHOW her who you really are” and then they finally ASK her and she’s like “WTF? I knew you were Death. Let’s go be dead and stuff”. It goes a lot faster than Meet Joe Black.

  16. Seventh Seal: I’ve always seen it more as a study of archetypes during the plague and their ability to deal with the inevitable death.

    The ultimate point… the knight delays death on his journey back through christiandom, carrying the plague all the way, until he meets his ultimate goal of reaching his families castle, where he brings death down upon them all.

  17. Loved the Four Horseman series, think “Death” was my favourite episode, thanks for the info and laughs once again.

    There is a new TV show called Sleepy Hollow. Its a modern retelling of the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” with Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman pulled into the future.
    Spoiler Alert: The Headless horseman is actually the first of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, Death. So far the show isn’t too bad, it shows promise.