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The Them is the friendship between Adam Young, Pepper, Brian and Wensleydale from the Good Omens fandom.
Canon[]
As the consequence of the Antichrist Adam Young growing up as a normal kid in Tadfield, he naturally acquired a group of friends around the area. Their names are Pepper, Brian and Wensleydale. There were troublemakers and feared around the area, leading to them getting a multitude of nicknames, with the last one “The Them” being said with an aura of contempt. Unfortunately, Adam and friends liked that name, so they began calling themselves that. The story starts around Adam’s birthday, with his friends asking him what he wished for. He told them that he wanted a dog, which coincides with the arrival of a hellhound chosen specifically for him, managing to track him down before the angels and demons themselves could. He went through a number of names, but then settled on just calling him “Dog”, which meant that the hellhound was officially his property, who then shrunk to the size of a small terrier.
Upon hearing about a witch being in town, Adam and friends decide to play witch hunters and pretend to tie up Wensleydale to “burn” him, only to stumble across an actual witch, Anathema Device, but they didn’t know that at the time. The ideas Adam and his friends brew up fuels his reality warping powers subconsciously, with Anathema filling his head with her own ideas only worsening the weird things happening around the world, with the Them often giving comments on what is happening.
All is fine and well until one day, the day of the apocalypse, Adam suddenly starts acting unusual. His eyes glow red and he starts telling his friends about the apocalypse, with him offering to spare them and give them the opportunity to own different parts of the world. They initially seem to like it, probably thinking that he isn’t serious. But his increasing megalomaniac behavior scares his friends and they try to leave him, only to find that they can’t, with Adam creating an invisible forcefield around them to force them to listen to him. The series adds scenes of Adam losing his temper with them talking back to him, so he makes their mouths disappear. Additionally, when they are less than enthusiastic about the end of the world, he forces them to smile. He eventually lets them go, but is disappointed when they try to leave him again. They tell him off, which he takes personally, realizing that he’s only driving them further away, so he gives a mournful roar and then passing out in front of them.
Brian picks up a large stick to knock him out, but Adam is already back to his senses, realizing that he and his friends can stop the apocalypse. He tells them to grab their bikes and follow him to the nearby airbase, where they confront the Four Horsepeople of the Apocalypse. Managing them to defeat them by believing in their opposites, Adam leaves only Death standing, who willingly gives up. Adam’s friends witness the aftermath of the representatives of Heaven, Hell and the Devil himself showing up to convince him to start the apocalypse anyway, but after that is dealt with, they just decide to go home.
Adam’s father grounds him for being at the airbase without his permission, but Adam is still not quite convinced that what happened the day before was real. When his friends ask him to hang out, he tells them he can’t since he’s grounded, but then tells Dog that he has no choice but to run after him when he escapes, thus allowing himself to spend the first day of the rest of his life in freedom.
Adam Young[]
The book states that Adam is the leader of the group and his friends will do as he says. This is most likely a side effect of his growing Antichrist powers. In the climax, the Horseperson he opposes is Death himself, though Death accepts defeat without even bothering to fight.
Pepper[]
The book states that the Them used to make fun of Pepper in school due to her unusual birth name (Pippin Galadriel Moonchild), but she beat them up over it and they began to respect her, then genuinely became friends with her. In the climax, the Horseperson she opposes is War, the only Horsewoman. She defeats her by believing in peace ("bitch").
Brian[]
The book states that "every friend group needs a Brian", which is echoed by God's narration in the series. He's the pig pen of the group and is often seen with dirt or ice cream around his mouth and face. In the climax, the Horseperson he opposes is Pollution, he defeats them by believing in a clean Earth.
Wensleydale[]
Both the book and series state that nobody uses Wensley's first name, not even his parents. He's a fairly nerdy kid and wears glasses. In the climax, the Horseperson he opposes is Famine, he defeats him by believing in nutritious lunches.
Fanon[]
The Them are fairly popular in the fanbase, but are rarely in focus. Though they are treated as main characters in the book and are just as important as any other characters, the fanbase largely only cares about Aziraphale and Crowley, thus Adam and friends are often relegated to side characters, unless the fans want to make content about kid characters. When it comes to shipping the Them with each other, polyships are fairly rare, while they're almost always grouped as Adam x Pepper and Brian x Wensleydale, other combinations are rarepairs. Most of the pre-series fanart depicted Adam with golden blonde hair, since that's the only appearance indicator he had in the book. The series later made the choice of portraying him with dark hair in the present.
Some fans like to integrate Warlock Dowling in the group, largely due to his popularity and ties to Adam as the false Antichrist and feeling that he would fit in well with troublemakers. However, besides being the reason why Adam was accidentally adopted by the Youngs due to a misunderstanding, Warlock never interacts with the Them.
Fandom[]
FAN FICTION
- The Them tag on AO3
- Brian & Pepper & Wensleydale & Adam tag on AO3
- Brian/Pepper/Wensleydale/Adam tag on AO3
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