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It began the creep over Brother Watchtower that something wasn’t right, but he couldn’t quite put a name to it.

Guards! Guards! Page 228

The Elucidated Brethren starts their meeting, despite the absence of the grandmaster. However, something is not right about the new member.

In this series, I haven’t had much opportunity to have Death. So, I'm glad to have this one turn out well.

He became terribly aware that Lady Ramkin had moved, and saw to his horror that she was striding towards the dragon, chin stuck out like an anvil.

Guards! Guards! Page 217

Lady Ramkin manages to control the dragon by treating it like any other dragon. That is until she breaks eye contact a couple of seconds later. All that’s left is the threat of the slipper!The fun of this was imagining Lady Ramkin still in her ridiculous dance dress, along with boots and gauntlets.

He swung into an avenue of shelving that was apparently a few feet long and walked along briskly for a half an hour. Guards! Guards! Page 208

The Librarian enters L-Space to travel back in time to find out how The Summoning of Dragons was stolen.

L-Space is one of my favorite concepts in Discworld. It took a while trying to figure out how to visualize this but I’m pretty happy how well the warped perspective worked.

“But Gaskin went and forgot, he ran on, went around the corner and, well, this bloke had a couple of mates waiting.”

Guards! Guards! Page 207

Guards! Guards! begins with the funeral of the Watchman Gaskin, demoralizing what’s left of the watch. Later Colon tells us how Gaskin died. He made the fatal watchman mistake of running too fast when chasing someone.

There’s not much to go on when drawing Gaskin. We can assume he’s as old as Colon and Vimes. This was confirmed in Night Watch. Night Watch also gives the detail that he’s called “Leggy” Gaskin. because of this, I tried to make him tall and lanky.

Vimes pulled a scrap of paper toward him. He looked at the notes he’d made yesterday,

Guards! Guards! Page 200

Vimes looks over the notes that he made regarding the dragon. While Errol feasts on anything he can get his claws on.

In my mind, this is one of the first signs of Vimes’s transition from town drunk to, well, Vimes.

I like how the composition of this turned out, but at the same time, I think this would be on the top of my list of pictures to do over… I really screwed up Vimes’s crossed legs.

The boy’s horse jigged nervously on the plaza’s flagstones as he dismounted, flourished the sword and turned to face the distant enemy.

Guards! Guards! Page 198

As predicted, some kid with a sword comes to challenge the dragon. Anyone who has been reading the rest of the book knows this is a ringer set up by the Elucidated Brethren. Yes, he can swing the sword. But how much of that is a necessary skill for ruling? (Especially when we know his main talent is looking at mirrors)

This one came out… okay. Not getting into my continuing inability to draw horses, dramatic dismounts are hard.

I mostly based the kid’s armor on Mordred’sfromExcalibur.

“Don’t you mean pork, sir?” said Carrot warily, eying the glistening tubes.

“Manner of speaking, manner of speaking,” said Throat quickly. “Certainly your actual pig products. Genuine pig.”

Guards! Guards! Page 193

The watch arrives at the city square, where some kid with a sword is challenging the dragon. As always in Ankh Morpork, capitalism trumps public safety. In the process, Carrot and Lady Ramkin witness Cut Me Own Throat’s pork… products for the first time.

I tried to make the scene frame the crowd as much as possible. Perhaps I should have zoomed back just a little bit more.

rsfcommonplace:

thebaconsandwichofregret:

disgruntledinametallicatshirt:

you know what actually pisses me off? when I finally start to feel a smidge of confidence in my writing ability and then some JERK POSTS A SINGLE LINE FROM A TERRY PRATCHETT NOVEL AND IT’S BETTER THAN ANYTHING I WILL EVER WRITE NO MATTER HOW MANY MILLENNIA I SPEND TRYING!

Terry was a professional writer from the age of 17. He worked as a journalist which meant that he had to learn to research, write and edit his own work very quickly or else he’d lose his job.

He was 23 when his first novel was published. After six years of writing professionally every single day. The Carpet People was a lovely novel, from a lovely writer, but almost all of Terry’s iconic truth bomb lines come from Discworld.

The Colour of Magic, the first ever Discworld novel was published in 1983. Terry was 35 years old. He had been writing professionally for 18 years. His career was old enough to vote, get married and drink. We now know that at 35 he was, tragically, over half way through his life. And do you know what us devoted, adoring Discworld fans say about The Colour of Magic? “Don’t start with Colour of Magic.”

It is the only reading order rule we ever give people. Because it’s not that great. Don’t get me wrong, very good book, although I’ll be honest I’ve never been able to finish it, but it’s nowhere near his later stuff. Compare it to Guards Guards, The Fifth Elephant, the utterly iconic Nightwatch and it pales in comparison because even after nearly 20 years of writing, half a lifetime of loving books and storytelling Terry was still learning.

He was a man with a wonderful natural talent, yes. But more importantly he worked and worked and worked to be a better writer. He was writing up until days before he died.  He spent 49 years learning and growing as a writer, taking so much joy in storytelling that not even Alzheimer’s could steal it from him. He wouldn’t want that joy stolen from you too.

Terry was a wonderful, kind, compassionate, genius of a writer. And all of this was in spite of many many people telling him he wasn’t good enough. At the age of five his headmaster told him that he would never amount to anything. He died a knight of the realm and one of the most beloved writers ever to have lived in a country with a vast and rich literary tradition. He wouldn’t let anyone tell him that he wasn’t good enough. And he wouldn’t want you to think you aren’t good enough. He especially wouldn’t want to be the reason why you think you aren’t good enough. 

You’re not Terry Pratchett. 

You are you.

And Terry would love that. 

I only ever had a chance to talk to Terry Pratchett once, and that was in an autograph line.  I’d bought a copy of The Carpet People, which was his very first book, and he looked at it with a faint air of concern.  “You realise that I wrote that when I was very young,” he said, in warning.

“Yes,” I said.  “But I like seeing how authors grow.”

He brightened and reached for his pen.  “That’s all right then,” he said, and signed.

lordveterinary:

A coloured sketch of Taika!Vimes because I am in love with this concept

higgsbison:

Vetinari’s Terrier: out

Dearheart’s Unusually Large and Completely Blonde German Shepard: in


Set in future where Vimes breaks both his hips on the job and Vetinari’s seen with a single gray hair in public and they have to retire.

A reflection came to me as I’m rewatching Going Postal:

The love story of Angua and Carrot is tedious af, but it has a highlight of her being like: “Oh, we can’t be together because you’re a man and I’m a werewolf…” and Carrot not giving a shit.

thestuffedalligator:

I deeply appreciate the fact that Discworld translators add their own terrible, terriblepuns.

datsderbunnyblog:

Just came across this on Goodreads. “Discworld #14.5; City Watch #1.5” - how cute is that?

If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a City Watch short story, here’s the link to where it is hosted The L-Space Web (by Sir Terry’s own kind permission: “I don’t want to see it in distributed print anywhere but don’t mind people downloading it for their own enjoyment.”)

Sharing this awesomeness with those who still doesn´t know!

The Death of Good Omens vs The Death of Discworld

Good Omens Death:

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND, he said. SURELY YOUR VERY EXISTENCE REQUIRES THE ENDING OF THE WORLD. IT IS WRITTEN.

Discworld Death:

EXACTLY. ONLY, WHILE IT IS TRUE WE HAVE TO RIDE OUT, Death added, drawing his sword, IT DOESN’T SAY ANYWHERE AGAINST WHOM.

I feel like the most natural Good Omens Discworld crossover is God hiring the Auditors to deal with Aziraphale, Crowley, and Adam and make sure the apocalypse gets back on track, and my heart is not ready to handle that.

mirtadraws:a few days ago I tried my first Wordle, solved it in 2 tries - the answer was “moist”. Fo

mirtadraws:

a few days ago I tried my first Wordle, solved it in 2 tries - the answer was “moist”. For fear of tarnishing this auspicious result with future failure, I decided that would also be my last Wordle. I drew a comic to commemorate this most exciting event.


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lemonsqueazie: headcanon: the luggage enjoys getting scritches and dances around like a turtle if so

lemonsqueazie:

headcanon: the luggage enjoys getting scritches and dances around like a turtle if someone it trusts gives it scritches


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Book Review: “Reaper Man” (1991) by Terry Pratchett In the second installment of the Discworld&rsquo

Book Review: “Reaper Man” (1991) by Terry Pratchett

In the second installment of the Discworld’s Death subseries, Terry Pratchett once again shows that he is a not-so-secret humanist and a philosopher. He lures you in with wizard slapstick, surprises you with an achingly beautiful fable, and then leaves you by the side of the road with all these overwhelming feelings about people and the cosmos. Sneaky bastard.

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rowantheexplorer:

findingfeather:

snakebitcat:

findingfeather:

rainaramsay:

rox-and-prose:

doomhamster:

findingfeather:

thaddeusmike:

doomhamster:

findingfeather:

Not to be all confrontational but if you can read the Watch series without recognizing that Carrot (who starts out as a sixteen year old) learns as much or more from Vimes than Vimes ever does from him, your close reading needs some work. 

Vimes is the reason that Carrot is not the most disturbing and terrifying force that the City has ever seen, and the best part is that he literally has zero power over Carrot that is not 100% based in moral suasion. And without that - without the things that Vimes has taught him and the ethics that Vimes brings to the table - Carrot would very, very quickly have turned into a horror-show, and the worst kind of horror-show, because his charisma and Destiny would mean that people would want to obey him. 

And this was going to be a quick ranty-post but shit, here, have a huge essay instead. 

Keep reading

Hyup. This. Vimes spends the whole series learning - or at least, having his idea of who should be included among the People whom he serves and protects challenged on a regular basis - but not from Carrot.

I’m not sure I totally agree. Carrot is fundamentally a good person. Vimes is a positive influence and a mentor, but Carrot doesn’t follow him blindly. Carrot chooses to follow Vimes because Vimes is a good role model for many things. But without Vimes Carrot wouldn’t turn into a mad king. Carrot is genuinely good and part of that is that he chooses to follow and learn from good influences. Vimes absolutely has an impact on Carrot, but let’s not downplay Carrot’s role.

There is a reason we have the saying “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” 

Being “a fundamentally good person” is not actually something that exists. You can have a fundamentally well-intentioned person, but the actual “being a good person” is based on what you do. It is based not only on your intentions in your actions, but also their results, your awareness of the results, your decisions and what motivates them. 

Carrot spends a huge chunk of Men At Arms being an absolute racist twit about the undead while speaking directly to Angua, a werewolf. He does it because he doesn’t know better, but absolutely no part of his “fundamentally good person”ness stops him, at any point, from literally telling a werewolf that he wishes the undead “would just go back to where they came from”, or that the undead aren’t “our kind of people”, or that he just doesn’t like them. 

When he first discovers Angua is a werewolf he literally draws his weapon on her

Carrot’s initial comments on discovering that Cheery Littlebottom is in fact Cheri  Littlebottom and has decided to assert her gender is to act like she’s just shat on the carpet, and includes being horrified and offended, saying “I’ve got nothing against females, I’m pretty sure my stepmother is one” and “[other female dwarves] have the decency not to show it.” 

And as noted, in Jingo he comes very close to literally going off to use his charisma to wade into the middle of wars he knows nothing about to Fix Everything, and let me tell you, if you don’t know why the White Saviour complex is a bad thing - ! 

And even by the point of Thud! Carrot thinks the way to solve the whole “the dwarf and troll officers are quitting” thing is to make it so dwarf and troll officers don’t have to patrol together! …..to impose racial segregation in policing. Aka “the technique best guaranteed to result in police abuse of vulnerable citizens.” Without Vimes nixing it, this would have been the view of Captain Carrot. 

That would have gone GREAT, right? 

Carrot is a fundamentally honest, honourable, generous and well-intentioned person. 

Absolutely no part of that is going to stop him from committing or causing major evil in the world, because of his reality-warping Destiny and Charisma. Because ethics are actually more fucking complicated than that, and intentions are only necessary, not sufficient. 

He would never intend to be an evil king. But that means fuck all: the combination of ignorance, self-righteousness (and Carrot DEFINITELY has that problem sometimes) and power would result in evil being the outcome. 

What makes Carrot as much of an actual good person as he is? 

Is that when he’s wrong about the undead, he stops acting like that. And when Angua smacks him upside the head about being an ass about Cheri, he eventually shuts up about it. 

And he chose very good role models to actually imitate, including - significantly - Vimes, so when Vimes says “don’t be a fucking idiot” about going off to Save Klatch, Carrot doesn’t do it. 

Carrot is absolutely an active part of that process: Carrot chose who to take as his model, Carrot chose who got to put words in his head based on what he saw as the good that Vimes did. It didn’t happen by fiat, and it didn’t happen because Vimes actively intervened: it happened because Carrot the sixteen year old looked at Vimes and SAW someone who was good and decided “I want to be like that.” 

But Carrot’s choices to learn, choices to have the humility to realize when he fucked up, choices to keep trying, and his choices in deciding who he wants to be like? That’s what makes him good. And we are given in-text, specific examples of times when his “fundamental goodness” is vastly insufficient to keep him from holding horrible opinions/beliefs and working his way up to do extreme harm. 

All this, plus I also can’t help but think of Gaspode’s reasoning in Fifth Element, specifically wondering if Carrot really is as straightforward and ignorant of his effect on others as they tend to think he is. With specific reference to Gavin saving Carrot from Wolfgang and getting killed in the process.

I believe that Carrot came into Ankh Morpork thinking he was or wanting to be a Good Person. Fortunately, for him this means paying attention to what that means. Unfortunately, it’s hard to see if what you’re doing is good or bad when everyone’s response to you is to just go with your flow. Enter Sam Vimes.

Not only is Vimes the way he is without direct prompting from Carrot, he was that way before Carrot came along and he’s that way when not in Carrots presence.* Further, Sam Vimes seems perhaps a bit too stubborn to be affected by Carrots Charisma very much.** More than anything this is what makes Carrot pay attention to who Vimes is as it gives him reason to think he’s doing something wrong. Now, there are other people who appear to avoid the worst of the effects of Carrots aura, but they dont appear to have the moral compass that Vimes does. Maybe Carrot decided to listen to Vimes because he felt Vimes’ compass pointed north, as it were, or maybe not. I think it’s a combination of a little bit of that and mostly the imprinting OP mentioned.

*Carrots charisma has been noted to wear off after a while (it still has lasting effects of course)

**I think pretty much the only time we see Vimes actually fall away to a direct command from Carrot is the aforementioned gonne situation and that was pretty clearly because Carrot played on Vimes’ identity as a watchman, rather than just plain charisma.

This was ringing bells to me, and I was trying to remember what I recently read that had that same kind of theme. 

It starts off looking like “angry old person has lost their idealism and is trying to shit on a bright shiny youth and take away their hope”,
but as time goes on it turns out that it’s actually
angry old person has actually seen enough to completely warrant being angry
but
despite having entirely lost their idealism has not lost their ideals
but
has thoroughly internalized the fact that the world is complicated and that what seems like a great solution when looked at from a simple idealistic perspective may in fact be the kind of thing that leads to exactly the things that caused them to lose their idealism
and therefore
is continuously telling the bright shiny youth that they need to stop charging ahead and if they can’t stop and think for a second before they do something then they should bloody well stop doing anything at all


… it was Witches Abroad.  This same dynamic plays out with Granny Weatherwax and Magrat. 

There are lots of parallels between Vimes and Esme.

However, Vimes does something Esme doesn’t, which is actually bothers to teach what he knows.

This is something Esme actually gets rightfully called out on by Agnes (and to some extent Pastor Oats) in particular and which she’s aware enough by the time she’s invested in Tiffany that she very explicitly and deliberately finds Tiffany other teachers because the best that she can do is let someone hang around her and attempt to learn from example (which is itself actually quite difficult, because she deliberately lies and obfuscates about what she’s doing and why).

When Carrot starts to wax about how good things could be when there were kings, in Men At Arms, Vimes not only says HELL NO, he then spends the next several pages explaining at length and in detail WHY kings are a bad idea. It’s not necessarily the most coherent explanation, but he’s trying.

When Magrat makes noises about wishing the world good, Esme insults her and tells her she’s a stupid useless child and Magic Is Bad - and then goes on to use magic, because (as Gytha observes in that very book) Esme excludes herself from her own proclamations.

We figure out WHY that is, through Lords and Ladies, and through Maskerade and especially and above all through Carpe Jugulum: it’s because she’s always been bad at people, at liking and interacting with people, and she’s lonely, and afraid of her own power, and afraid not only that people dislike her and hold her in contempt but (and this is the worst part) that they’re RIGHT to do so, and she’s never allowed herself to rely on or connect with anybody and she doesn’t TRUST anybody to have her back.

She thinks it’s much more likely - even after all those years, even after Wyrd Sisters and how hard the other two have stuck with her, and after Lords and Ladies and the fact that Magrat ever forgave her for her (bluntly) high handed BS, even after ALL of it - that Magrat explicitly did not invite her to the naming of her daughter, than it is that maybe something just happened to the invite.

And the thing is:

I empathize with Esmerelda Weatherwax so effing hard, man. I know exactly what it feels like when you’re in that moment. When you can’t actually bring yourself just to go down there (or even to storm down there and demand where your invitation got to, what is with this? or even ASK?), despite everything, despite years, because you’re pushy and bossy and loud and abrupt and unpleasant and despite everything maybe they have all just been waiting for you to figure it out and go away, and were too scared to tell you.

As Oats observes, Esme needs someone to beat, or else she beats herself.

But the result is that Esme, whatever her sterling qualities as a witch and as a defender of the world against the shit witches defend against, and all that, is a fuck-awful teacher. And Wyrd Sisters is honestly the perfect example of that.

And the contrast of Esme’s refusal to even discuss with Magrat why the things she says are so, vs Vimes LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING BOY - ! is a good contrast to look at. And moreover I think it’s one that Esme herself would look at: I think there’s a REASON that her response to discovering Tiffany was to send Tiffany around to OTHER witches, ones who WERE better at actually, you know, engaging with people, and being an example rather than a teacher. And I think that was a good call.

Which is the other thing I love about Esme: she DOES figure that out. And it might be too late for her to radically change, but she can at least be AWARE of that and adjust around it.

Vimes had advantages that Esme lacked - Vimes was part of the Watch, which taught its members to work together, because they had to rely on each other.

Witch society discouraged cooperation, and taught its members that competition against all other witches was Just How Things Are Done. 

And when Young Sam was in danger of becoming the worst sort of Watchman, Old Sam arrived and taught him what sort of Watchman he needed to be. 

Esme had to learn what sort of Witch she wanted to be all on her own, without help from anyone, because back when she was Young Esme showing any sign of weakness to the other Witches would result in social ruin and the destruction of her livelihood. 

When Young Sam felt the darkness begin boiling inside him, Old Sam was there to teach him how to leash it in, and to trust in others to help him do it when he needed it - and how to tell who was worthy of that sort of trust.

Esme, whether because of an inborn moral sense or just because she was so contrary that her sister choosing to become a Bad Witch meant that she had to become a Good Witch to spite her, saw no choice but to keep her darkness locked away in the deepest, most remote corners of her soul, and she had to keep everyone at arm’s distance or further because if anyone ever got too close, they might see the inmost self that she was afraid might be hers. And she couldn’t even trust herself - instead, she had to rely on an absolute certainty that everything was black and white, never grey, because grey was just a lighter and more palatable shade of black.

Yup. Which is again tied up in why I think how she handled Tiffany thru to I Shall Wear Midnight* is very indicative of the part where she realized that this entire model fucked her up. 

I don’t think the process is finished, mind, as Tiffany is still a bit hyper concerned with Independence in ISWM but even so a lot of the explicit plot of that one is “guess what: try to do everything alone and you’ll LITERALLY FAIL”. 

And otherwise not only is Tiffany’s generation of witches more actively, deliberately social and mutually supportive than Esme and Gytha’s, but Annagramma (who is actually the one closest to Esme in behaviour and personality, just having found Eawig as her Mentor) is the explicit benefactress of that support. 

Which is to say: they actively and deliberately avoid creating another Esme (and worse, an Esme who WOULDN’T have been as good at being a good witch and so much likelier to go the way of Lily.) 

I think specific bits of Maskerade (namely: Agnes calling her RIGHT OUT in SO MANY WORDS - “I’d rather be someone else’s voice than a sour old woman with no friends who’s just a bit cleverer than everyone, bullying people all the time” - right when she was in fact realizing how small her world could be) and all of Carpe Jugulum (and arguably The Sea and Little Fishes) forced Esme to actually recognize the huge, gaping flaws in how things went and not want this new, hyper-bright girl she’d just found who went off to rescue her brother from the Fairie Queen to get stuck with them. And to try to manage things so that it might go differently. 


(There’s also a lot to be said about the NATURE of existing in a city, as Vimes must, vs being able to be the Old Witch Out In The Woods in a rural context: when there’s six people to one room flat, you want to get anything done you HAVE to cooperate and work in supportive groups. There’s hella downsides to that, too! But.) 



(*the last book I don’t really include, because among other things it really was unfinished when Pterry died and thanks to him being contrary we can’t even quite know HOW much difference there would be between a draft at that point of completion and an actual Finished Book because he destroyed all his drafts after publication. Which is entirely a legit thing for him to do, but results in things being Opaque.) 

I cannot express how incredibly happy I am that Discworld Discourse has appeared on my dash.

One thing I think is interesting about the Carrot-Vimes dynamic is that we all know Carrot can Influence almost anyone. Even the most aware individuals at best kinda know when they’re being Influenced by his magical-royal-charisma, and still find themselves going along with it anyway. But it doesn’t properly work on Vimes. Genetics on the Disc work differently to our own and Vimes, I think, inherited Old Stoneface’s mental immunity to kingship. Carrot, in all of Ankh-Morpork, found and latched on to the one man who could actually guide him. 

And that’s important. He chose a good role model, and that was vital, but more than just finding someone who knew right from wrong, he found someone who could be trusted to truly have his own will. And I think it’s possible that under the layers of cheerful obfuscation, Carrot knows this. Carrot knows he can do wrong, and he knows he can Influence people, and what he needs more than anything is someone like Vimes. Because Carrot knows, eventually at least, that, unlike so many other people, if Vimes agrees with his idea it’s because Vimes is agreeing with the idea and not just agreeing withCarrot

Crack theory time, and one that Sam Vimes would absolutely detest: He and Carrot are written in to narrative causality around the good king and his wise adviser. Carrot is clearly some sort of narrativly ordained king of the people, but what is a true and noble archetypal king without a trusted mentor and sage? The Vimeses exist a narrative counterpart and parallel lineage to the “rightful kings”. 

Ankh-Morpork has always been a city of duality, two halves, two founders, why not two lines? The line of the kings of rule, who speak and are listened to, who wield the power of the king. And the line of the voices of Law to act as a counterbalance, who are ruled bythe people, and serve justice. The king rules from the top down with his voice, and the Law rules from the bottom up, as the voice of the people.

Vimes and Granny Weatherwax both exist as grumpy, bitter bastions of justice who are very clear about the fact they will never rule but they’re bloody well keeping an eye on whoever is. Both of them strive to be Good and struggle with a world that makes is hard, people who’s stupidity makes it hard, and a deep well of darkness in them both that must be overcome. But it’s from different directions for each of them. 

Sam Vimes set out to be good, and knows he has failed at times but he always wanted to be good I guess? The world may have beaten him down but his internal compass naturally aims due Good, and he feels good when he achieves it. But Esme? Not so much. Esme is good in spite of her natural inclinations. She felt her sister stripped her of her agency in becoming evil because she had to be the good one. Esme isGood and, as with most things she sets her mind to, she’s good at it, if not nice, but she resents it. Deep down, she wanted to be bad, to be evil, or at the very least, she wanted the optionto at least give evil a try or to be good by choice, not duty. 

And I think that’s a fundamental divider, they both have darkness inside but the things that push Vimes to it are external, while the things that pull Granny to the dark come from herself. Sam feels rewarded for overcoming the darkness to do good, but Esme just feels robbed. 

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