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Death
War is one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the only female Horseman. When she’s posing as a human, she takes the form of a beautiful young woman with long auburn hair. Wherever she goes, fights and wars seem to arise out of nowhere. To occupy her time while she waits for Armageddon (the end of the world), she works first as an arms dealer—and later, as a war correspondent. Other war correspondents are in awe of her, as she’s somehow able to arrive to the wars before they even begin—which, of course, is because she actually starts them. The day before Armageddon is supposed to begin, War accepts a delivery of a sword. It’s unclear if she’s aware that the sword is actually the angel Aziraphale’s flaming sword, which he gave to Adam and Eve after the biblical Fall from the Garden of Eden. During Armageddon, Adam coaches War’s young human counterpart, Pepper, in doing away with her with the help of a makeshift sword made of sticks.
War/Red/Scarlett Quotes in Good Omens
The Good Omens quotes below are all either spoken by War/Red/Scarlett or refer to War/Red/Scarlett. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Saturday Quotes
And then it was Pigbog’s turn.
“I, uh...I think I’ll be them answer phones. They’re pretty bad,” he said.
“You can’t be ansaphones. What kind of a Biker of the Repocalypse is ansaphones? That’s stupid, that is.”
“S’not!” said Pigbog, nettled. “It’s like War, and Famine, and that. It’s a problem of life, isn’t it? Answer phones. I hate bloody answer phones.”
“I hate ansaphones, too,” said Cruelty to Animals.
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As four bikers ride behind the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, they come up with new names. While some of them, like Cruelty to Animals in this passage, take names that don’t make much sense, Pigbog tries to choose a name that best encapsulates the failings he recognizes in the modern world. This passage is intentionally humorous—it’s one of many times that Good Omens encourages readers to consider the modern world and all the ways in which it’s actually absurd. Two of the characters in this passage hate ansaphones (early answering machines) and perhaps other seemingly normal technology that makes Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque o
I DO NOT UNDERSTAND, he said. SURELY YOUR VERY EXISTENCE REQUIRES THE ENDING OF THE WORLD. IT IS WRITTEN.
“I dunt see why anyone has to go an’ write things like that,” said Adam calmly. “The world is full of all sorts of brilliant stuff and I haven’t found out all about it yet, so I don’t want anyone messing it about or endin’ it before I’ve had a chance to find out about it. So you can all just go away.”
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When Adam confronts Death and the other Horsemen of the Apocalypse, he refuses to lead them into starting Armageddon (the end of the world). For Death (who speaks in all capital letters with no quotation marks), this is confusing—it’s “written,” after all, that as the Antichrist, Adam is going to lead the Four Horsemen and bring about the end of the world. For Adam, though, what’s been written is essentially just a matter of opinion. He doesn’t like what’s been written about what he’s supposed to do—so he goes into this with the understanding that he can change it and Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Si
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War/Red/Scarlett Character Timeline in Good Omens
The timeline below shows where the character War/Red/Scarlett appears in Good Omens. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Eleven Years Ago
Meanwhile, a young woman with auburn hair named Scarlett is has been selling arms for the last 400 years. She’s currently driving a truck...
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Meanwhile, Harriet Dowling returns home with her baby, whom she and the Cultural Attaché named Warlock, and the Cultural Attaché advertises for a nanny. Crowley orchestrates a London tube (subway) strike...
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Nanny Ashtoreth and Mr. Francis leave when Warlock is six. Two tutors take over next: one who teaches Warlock about Atilla the Hun...
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Aziraphale isn’t concerned, but he raises an eyebrow when Crowley sighs that Warlock will hopefully know how to act when the hell-hound arrives on his 11th birthday. Hell...
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Wednesday
Warlock’s 11th birthday party in Central London is well-attended. In addition to the 47 young guests,...
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...with lace edging—which catches on the guard’s gun, sending it flying. The children clap as Warlock runs for the gun and gleefully points it at people. He pulls the trigger when...
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...it. Rather than sign her current name, Carmine Zuigiber, she signs with a shorter name: Red. The deliveryman backs out of the room, and Red opens the package: it contains a...
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Saturday
...but a voice from Hell interrupts to address Crowley directly. It says that they’ve taken Warlock to the Fields of Megiddo, and he’s clearly not Satan’s son. The voice asks Crowley...
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...they argue over the answers. When the woman sits down, the Sport category transforms to War. Two of the bikers, Greaser and Pigbog, discuss this. Pigbog wishes that there were more...
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Soon, a black motorcycle pulls up outside; its rider, Black, joins the woman, Red. Suddenly, every biker in the café is ravenous—but the kitchen is out of food. The...
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Now, the available categories are War, Famine, Pollution, and Pop Trivia. The tall biker refuses to press any of the buttons...
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...center of the stage and tells the cameras what’s going to happen, according to Revelation. War, Pestilence, Famine, and Death will ride out and bring about nuclear destruction, and then the...
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...can’t be Ansaphones, even if ansaphones are problems of modern life. They follow Death, Famine, War, and Pollution toward Tadfield.
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...stop near the main gate of the air base. Three of them remove their helmets. War wishes they could crash through the fence, but Famine notes that if people react logically...
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...long, low buildings. It’s possible that no one saw them—people are good at not seeing War, Famine, Pollution, and Death when they don’t want to be seen. The alarms in the...
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Inside, War looks around. She, Pollution, and Famine know what computers are, but Death doesn’t. She thinks...
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...In the building on the air base, Death straightens up and says that he’s here. War, Pollution, and Famine now seem to have “ill-fitting bodies.” Only Death hasn’t changed. As the...
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Meanwhile, Aziraphale points the Antichrist out to Shadwell, sounding uncertain. War tells Adam that he’s part of them, while Pollution says that they’re making the world...
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War laughs and tells the boys that she can make them fall in love with her,...
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Wensleydale asks where War, Pollution, and Famine went, and Death says that they’ve gone where they belong—back into people’s...
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...is useless but makes him feel better anyway. Aziraphale, meanwhile, picks up the sword that War dropped; with a whoosh, it catches fire. Aziraphale tells Crowley that if they die, he’ll...
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