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Which Horseman, again?
I've been told that HL fans have sorted out the four horsemen thus--Methos, Death; Kronos, Pestilence; Caspian, Famine; Silas, War. I tried to argue the identity of Death, because I think it's unclear in canon, but ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
blueraccoon responded with, "But Methos is Death!"
"Comes a Horseman" has a fair amount of hearsay and circumstantial evidence for Kronos being Death:
When Joe asks which Horseman they're looking for, Cassandra--who at that point hasn't met Methos, and is only looking for Kronos--says, "Death."
In Macleod's flashback to 1867, Kronos tosses aside both their swords, intending to kill Mac with a scythe--because he says it's "traditional."
When Methos asks Kronos if he's going to kill him, Kronos replies, "It's what I do best." Kronos's assessment of what Methos does best is survive--not a terribly apocalyptic trait at all (which probably should have been Kronos's tip-off that Methos wasn't gonna play).
Some story I read mentioned Methos being the only one of the four to ride a white horse (Death on a Pale Horse) but this is apocryphal. In fact, both Methos and Kronos rode pale horses (though neither of them are white--ever hear the joke, "What color was George Washington's white horse? Gray"? Horses only come in white if they're albino), though Caspian and Silas rode darker steeds.
The major chunk of "Comes a Horseman" that implies Methos was Death is his rant at Macleod, where he does say, "Do you know who I was? I was Death. Death--death on a horse."
Now, I know I'm a little early in my Highlander career to already be a Methos redemptionista, but let's consider the source. Methos is trying to rile Macleod into going away and leaving him alone, so he doesn't have to kill him, is what I got out of the scene. He's telling Macleod a story--you hear it when he asks, every few sentences, "Is that what you want to hear?" I wouldn't put it past him to have changed some of the details for effect, because, I mean, suppose he was really Famine. "Do you know who I was? Famine! Famine--famine on a horse!" It doesn't quite have the same ring, does it? For Methos's rhetorical purpose, driving Macleod away, "Death" is much more effective.
It also allows Methos to distance himself from the story in his own head, because, as Macleod guessed, he is running away from this. He raped and murdered alongside Kronos, and maybe he even enjoyed it at the time, but he regrets it now, and he doesn't want to own up to it yet. Using Kronos's name in this tale he's spinning, playing the part of Kronos, allows Methos to gloss over how he, himself feels about what he did as a Horseman.
"Revelations 6:8" puts some other stuff out there as to which Horseman is which; fans apparently decided Kronos was Pestilence because of the virus, while Caspian is Famine because of eating the roach and the rat. I dunno. I managed to convince myself Kronos was really Death before I actually saw "Revelations 6:8" on the basis of "Comes a Horseman" (mock me verily, I watched them about an hour apart) but yeah. This is what I think. *shrug*
blueraccoon responded with, "But Methos is Death!""Comes a Horseman" has a fair amount of hearsay and circumstantial evidence for Kronos being Death:
When Joe asks which Horseman they're looking for, Cassandra--who at that point hasn't met Methos, and is only looking for Kronos--says, "Death."
In Macleod's flashback to 1867, Kronos tosses aside both their swords, intending to kill Mac with a scythe--because he says it's "traditional."
When Methos asks Kronos if he's going to kill him, Kronos replies, "It's what I do best." Kronos's assessment of what Methos does best is survive--not a terribly apocalyptic trait at all (which probably should have been Kronos's tip-off that Methos wasn't gonna play).
Some story I read mentioned Methos being the only one of the four to ride a white horse (Death on a Pale Horse) but this is apocryphal. In fact, both Methos and Kronos rode pale horses (though neither of them are white--ever hear the joke, "What color was George Washington's white horse? Gray"? Horses only come in white if they're albino), though Caspian and Silas rode darker steeds.
The major chunk of "Comes a Horseman" that implies Methos was Death is his rant at Macleod, where he does say, "Do you know who I was? I was Death. Death--death on a horse."
Now, I know I'm a little early in my Highlander career to already be a Methos redemptionista, but let's consider the source. Methos is trying to rile Macleod into going away and leaving him alone, so he doesn't have to kill him, is what I got out of the scene. He's telling Macleod a story--you hear it when he asks, every few sentences, "Is that what you want to hear?" I wouldn't put it past him to have changed some of the details for effect, because, I mean, suppose he was really Famine. "Do you know who I was? Famine! Famine--famine on a horse!" It doesn't quite have the same ring, does it? For Methos's rhetorical purpose, driving Macleod away, "Death" is much more effective.
It also allows Methos to distance himself from the story in his own head, because, as Macleod guessed, he is running away from this. He raped and murdered alongside Kronos, and maybe he even enjoyed it at the time, but he regrets it now, and he doesn't want to own up to it yet. Using Kronos's name in this tale he's spinning, playing the part of Kronos, allows Methos to gloss over how he, himself feels about what he did as a Horseman.
"Revelations 6:8" puts some other stuff out there as to which Horseman is which; fans apparently decided Kronos was Pestilence because of the virus, while Caspian is Famine because of eating the roach and the rat. I dunno. I managed to convince myself Kronos was really Death before I actually saw "Revelations 6:8" on the basis of "Comes a Horseman" (mock me verily, I watched them about an hour apart) but yeah. This is what I think. *shrug*