#heretic wizards

EXPLICITLY FRAMED as the exact opposite , as someone who consciously & knowingly & deliberately BC MORALITY rejects a certain model of violent masculinity in a more sophisticated modern style than that of conan , sorry – cohen – the barbarian , but which is @ heart NEARLY the same swaggering machismo ….only w that extra twist of sadism that as howard wld say only civilization can give

& that tension , between versions or models of what is civilization , is as much @ the heart of discworld as the tension btwn models of “manliness’ @ the heart of sam vimes chara , & the watch itself – sir terry playing as equivocally & wickedly & to the same purpose & effect as tolkien even if in mirror image , w the definition of the word w BE A MAN -JOIN THE WATCH = WATCHMEN

( 1 hobbit dude + 1 human princess on 1 horse = 0 "living men’ if yr overliteral enf to rely on prophecy for yr shield of +10 immunity to disintegration ; likewise everyone can be a watchman in ankh morpork whether human or ‘monster’ or machine – YES I SEE WHAT I DID THERE – no matter yr gender … )

so i have another adversary for team wall & the possibility that a LOT of discworld things that seemed like random jokes werent , ever – i realized on reread that FIFTH ELEPHANT leads directly to MONSTROUS REGIMENT in some key ways – and MR has the jeanne d'arc expy , which yeah luc bessons MESSENGER

so now i gotta watch both of em to see if besson is clearly on the side of team elitist vs humanist all the way back then , i cant trust my memory for beans

but anyways

leading into MONSTROUS REGIMENT w its multiplex satires of church & state & nationalism & militarism to the point of bankrupting its citizenry ( sun tzu wld NOT approve borogravia ) but following on the heels of YET ANOTHER restatement of the fact that sam vimes - no matter how tempted - is NOT & never will ( let self ) be

Dirty Harry

there is the moonshot apocalypse-averting via bleedng edge tech of LAST HERO

& now i suspect that its not just a bit of a takethat to ARMAGEDDON

we all remember that captain ironfounderson is very big on civic responsibility & the demand of the "heroes ” of bays film is to avoid all such forever as price of worldsaving

but also of a now forgotten but then splashy & def bellwether film called SPACE COWBOYS

an early entry in the “old action movie heroes clinging to their laurels ’ genre see also THE EXPENDABLES & idek what all else by now

anither thing to check into

but meanwhile i can see very clearly now the OTHER references in SNUFF -vimes as mirrorverse javert , sybil as a nascent class traitor via inept tricoteuse - & , @ the same time the syncretism of vimes-&-vetinari w nick fury

combined w a reference to UNFORGIVEN

following refs to THE ROOKIE & oc the obligate rejection of DIRTY HARRY as a model of manliness

( altho willikins is a kink-positive alfred it turns out tho ankh-morpork is a bit unclear on safe/sane there yet as in so many things )

but yes IMDB confirms that LUTHER is def part of the monomyth

& SOUL MUSIC explains why elba wld take the role of a motorcycling monastic in an otherwise wretched film

& yes my suspicion that he was playing a captain carrot expy in THE OFFICE as "charles miner” are abt 100 per confirmed now

bc for reasons indelicate but which ive already dealt w back when in my “RECESSIONAL” posts on my then suspicions of PR as a complex takethat to the raj

terry pratchett has yes indeed & in a not insignificant way coded captain ironfounderson as black even before he showed up on the page or in the city eternal

“You know what they say about dwarves…”

–in THE LAST HERO , sir terry set up the PETER PAN syncretism whose deducted presence in PANS LABYRINTH he then confirmed in SNUFF - bc there is the crocodile , on the banks of the alt mississippi , not to mention the counter to vidals seeking personal / familial immortality by begetting a son who will “carry on his legacy” as he was forced to

but ghengiz cohen rejects that too in LAST HERO - what matters is how yr remembered in stories & he hopes his kids live for themselves not for him - agn STRAIGHT DIOTIMA , STRAIGHT OUTTA PLATO

but in SNUFF pratchett sets that out plain , w old sam happy that young sam looks like he is going to be a scientist aka wizard when he grows up & nurturing that

instead of taking it as a rejection

but also that he HAS kids following in his footsteps careerwise

oodles of em

& the most recent a mixed-race rookie who has a lot to learn from him

but also teaching him a thing or 2

including karate

& as importantly reminding him that he can never ever slip & become dirty harry

even when he is disobeying orders bc the orders were wrong ones or bad ones

or being a vigilante bc there ARE no laws to appeal to then

but most important to not do evil in the name of the good cause

ppl carelessly call discworld satire & dont think WHAT OF? let alone remember that good satire famously punches up

& i note again that sah ridley coyly told idris elba to read MOBY DICK to prepare for his role in PROMETHEUS

remembering that 1 ) gregory peck played both captains ahab & hornblower 2 ) there are i think strong & deliberate parodic swipes from the HORNBLOWER movie in PROMETHEUS along w swipes @ HOGFATHER & the watch books along w the swipes @ HELLBOY & BLADE 2 & CRONOS ive pointed out

& 3 ) in NIGHT WATCH pratchett moved the eastwood /leone plot themes from the US civil war to the post waterloo civil unrest in england following the napoleonic war

just as del toro moved them to the spanish civil war

& 4 ) put an ahab-expy as a salvific figure & manifestation of his hekate-avatars lasting power in the world , in THE WEE FREE MEN

& in SNUFF both the witches & the feegles are present as are the decadent sparkly aristocratic louche young vampires -& thus the old count of the legends , who was hornblowrers doppelganger in the old movie recall –by the law of magic & lit called Synechdoche

bc it is rev oates & his doubleheaded cretan style ax of liberation who sets the plot in motion there

but he was first set in motion by granny weatherwax

& the witch books & the watch books came tog in I SHALL WEAR MIDNIGHT

& “own goal’ scott didnt realize what he had done , by mocking BLADE 2 & HELLBOY 2 in his ROBIN HOOD

& then w his arch little janek-vickers charade

but sir terry set up sam vimes as a fisher king without it being clear to any not looking for patterns of strata

that it was an answer to the MUMMY 3 makers / mockers ( reread of LAST HERO adds a bit of knifetwist to millar & goughs scavenging bc the barbarian heroes code is no grave robbing – temples & palaces & wealthy merchants - but never the dead )

& so the first kaiju drift flashback scene falls into place in the long game that isnt poker but might be football AM style , & the role of dogs in the mythos comes into sharper focus bc DOGS = OUR FIRST FRANKENSTEIN MONSTERS for real which pratchett explores repeatedly in the werewolf context

& in CRONOS the first ppl we see are guillermo & his wife walking their own dog as a bystander cameo , so that parallel was always there in their multiverse , whenever they synched them up

but there is something fitting in the first key for me starting to unlock it all bein the fact that idris elba was channeling gregory peck so perfectly that i got it right off , even if i didnt realize which movie was foremost in importance bein distracted by chronological trappings ( but TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH is part of the weave so it wasnt wrong exactly … )

it
is
an
anagrammatic
equation

similar to how PPDC = SPQR only monoalphabetical & phonetic this time

( & the whole PPDC = ROME goes w the discworld & HK-as-AM thing , QED )

bc

RAMKIN
KARMIN
CARMEN

& yes im pretty sure now theyve been working on this shared multiverse since DEVILS BACKBONE / NIGHT WATCH

bc otherwise there is a MASSIVE coincidence involving a sergio leone movie w major elements –yet non-overlapping ones–that just HAPPEN to show up to overflowing in both works of fiction

it cld be the zeitgeist haunting i suppose

but i think it unlikely

i dont have the access right now to lay it out & i need to do some more starchart checking , i mean by that looking @ the timelines of publication & broadcast & all

but im pretty sure i know now why whedon decided out of nowhere -ahem!!- to make a space western w alt confeds as good guys instead of sticking w paranormal romance for his 3rd tv series outing

& no not innocent

& you shld be able to triangulate from NIGHT WATCH & esp ‘john keel" & ESPINAZO DEL DIABLO & what those 2 stories have in common by way of setting & charas

exactly WHICH sergio leone movie im talking abt

@ least if yr more of a film scholar or post-ww2 era film or western film buff than i am

but i dont think im imagining the patterns

not when i have so many non identical overlapping sets

& that means im not imagining / imposing the GUARDS! GUARDS! as anti-WATCHMEN fic either

bc if there are 2 things alan moore stands for , its elitism & despair

& if there are 2 things terry pratchett & guillermo del toro both stand for , that wld be a guarded hopefulness & a faith in ordinary humanity both of which come from a firm belief that the world IS worth saving , even if even the biggest damnedest heroes of all sometimes , or often , feel like chucking it all , running away , or yes burning it all to the ground themselves

i thnk i know exactly why & how & why WHEN both of them almos simultaneous made a classically influenced cryptic remake/fixfic of a western that was ultimately a “take that” to KILLING JOKE ,

& now im pretty sure that LABERINTO wasnt retconned into the same multiverse that holds great a'tuin

and it isnt a coincidence that it AND the 1st tiffany aching book share that darkfic cryptic remake of a cult classic movie based on the older kids book of the girl who wishes her brother to the fae

but the game of mirrors that reflect backwards & forwards is unbelievably complex & always in play

however the existence of it is not in doubt

bc INTERESTING TIMES w its yellow -which is after all heraldically gold–butterflies & benevolent AI -both of which lend cred 2 my claim its ROAD TO EL DORADO mirrorverse fixfic–

also bgins w the gameboard of the gods-which makes it instantly CLASH OF THE TITANS fic

& the game of the gods returns in 2001s LAST HERO , w Fate vs The Lady agn

& also is APOLLO 13 & RIGHT STUFF fic , plus COLD EQUATIONS hatefic -and ends w the old heroes of the pulps realizing theyre NOT the last , the heroic age isnt over after all

but the new heroes are a different sort is all - gentle & courteous & dutiful instead of impulsive violent jerks as of old

and in that tale–which id ttly forgotten– sir terry syncretized ALEXANDER THE GREAT & CHARLEMAGNE – in a story of a lunar landing –which makes it oh so much ORLANDO FURIOSO fanfic !!!, AND referenced an old & obscure story abt a spaniard who flew to the moon in a space chariot pulled by swans

yeah i cant even either

but this explains my ORLANDO FURIOSO by way of mirrorverse LOEG:CENTURY impressions

& now also raises the poss that moore deliberately wrote LOEG CENTURY as a “takethatbackatcha” to pratchett & del toro

altogether now

can we say OWN GOAL???

but the best part so far , another thing i d forgotten

not only is the agatean empire depicted in interesting times as a place where gold is as common as lead

which is NOT part of the traditional “easier route to asia” mythology EXCEPT in so far as it got there thru the accidental collision w intervening continents

& involving stories of lost cities & kingdoms collectively termed “el dorado’ aka "of gold ”

thus making it as much a story of the americas as of imagined & historical asia alike

& giving a fanficcer all the warrant he cld ask for to (re) syncretize china & mexico in a story of resistance-to-endless-empire

involving sorcery & soothsayers & workingclass heroes w plain functional swords & battered armor

& the million-to-one chance

but in that book

which was from p1 ray harryhausen fanfic , long before the silver horde start arguing over whether cadmus got a mislabeled packet of seed-teeth BC IN THE MYTHS THEY ARENT SKELETON WARRIORS , THAT WAS HARRYHAUSENS ADDITION ! !

& so the alchemy of the awful protoscript , of which the few traces remaining in PR the play-on-screen are peculiar & telling –im highlighting them page by pg by degrees of fidelity , most are tag MIRROR-REVERSED – includes that meta connection to the horrible CLASH remake

& lol now i wonder if LONDON CALLING is actually part of it too & not something i added in , either , in my headcanon , but intuited subconsciously via that CLASH OF THE TITANS –> CLASH –> theme of failing harvests & floods & climate change & the little people getting told tough luck –> but somehow mysterious & heroic endurance–

but back on point INTERESTING TIMES has the Lady tellin Fate thefollowing

I NEVER SACRIFICE A PAWN

NO MORE SACRIFICES

its def EL DORADO fixfic –& done w kenneth branaghs blessing!!

but while Fate may play the game by cheating , w 2 queens on the chessboard

IE MASSIVELY OVERPOWERED PIECES

IE LEATHERBACK & OTACHI

( also OTACHI MK 1 w MK 2 included for bonus hell unleashing )

THE LAST HERO talks of how the gods forget what happens when you let a mere pawn get all the way up the board….

fans of the ALICE stories –as the creator of PANS LABYRINTH famously is –will not make that mistake

( VIVAT REGINA – the original 'leveling up" )

inmy defense it is one of the most obscure bits of old wills work startin w the title & nobody knows what 2 make of it so it isnt taught much & thus not discussed much either

but it s abt how the love of the ( female ) phoenix for the male ) turtledove was the greatest & purest in th e universe & @ their funeral no bird s of prey allowed but the royal Eagle

also namin Swan & Raven as chief in the rites

w modern warfare ( for a value of ‘modern" that incl von clausewitz , who i guess is no longer studied by warmongering politicians any more than sun tzu ….)

“GO TELL THE EPHEBIANS –WHAT TOOK YOU SO BLOODY LONG?”

so discworld & ergo the del toro verse had thermopylae before frank millar started swiping from STARGATE to make his unhistorical machofied version of THE PERSIANS

except mary renault had it first w the YA LION IN THE GATEWAY

& renaults version of THE GOLDEN BOUGH has been part of british sf & english lang pop culture & the us teenage education system since the 1970s & WATERSHIP DOWN

& it is no coincidence that the nac mac feegles , like hobbits , are so often equated w rabbits

but i get ahead of myself

altho getting ahead of oneself is part of the monomyth

bc cyclicality & retcon & time loops are there from the start of the multiverse

its in PYRAMIDS

& so is the royal assassin who is his own evil twin & saves the realm by parkour

which is how the bondverse reboot team got 007 as jamie lannister & moneypenny as the E-V & M as the red queen AND the sacrificial stag king in the scottish highlands too

& all of it a satirical retake on dame judis 1st outing as M

bc corn kings & king sacrifice & priestly substitution & tanists & GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING from the “good parts” story are there in PYRAMIDS

along w the frustrated romance btwn two heroes who turn out to be siblings of the DNA sort & this isnt wagner nor lensmen nor ancient times any more

so the bastard princess ends up , possibly , w the smuggler-who-Q-ships-pyrates

or poss , bc she is The Elizabeth as well , she chooses not to end up w anyone if she cannot have her 1st choice , we are never told –

& there is a long old linkage btwn discworld book fandom & the trodden stage

even if it isnt hardly known at all in the usa

so theres the likeliest line of alliance btwn sam mendes & kenneth branagh & sir terry , assuming it didnt go via comics 1st thru guillermo working on B2 which is also a likely ave of connection

but it is def there & all the mirroring of HB1 & 2 in SKYFALL are deliberate ( & even the name “mallory” has a sergio leone /eastwood & thus a DEVILS BACKBONE cx as well as an alistair maclean-&-so-gregory-peck connex , before ralph fiennes played him as an allusion to SHARPES RIFLES & used the bulldog icon from MUMMY 3 as a symbol of the stasis of the old kingdom prevailing….

bc PYRAMIDS is as much abt the pointlessness of the english monarchy as it is abt religious hypocrisy faced w the realities of belief ( & includes in the process an overt shoutout to narnia & THE LAST BATTLE in the form of hat the vulture god )

& crocodiles as the embodiment of devouring time -& devouring theocracy too , bc PYRAMIDS sets up all the serves for SMALL GODS & the omnian quisition to come–

equally a shoutout to those twin pillars of english fantasy jm barrie & lewis carroll

& yet by INTERESTING TIMES & reconfirmed in LAST HERO we also have the crocodile-god as one of the wisest of the great gods of dunmanifestin-the elder god who has learned most from humanity , who hates sad endings & doesnt burden his worshippers unduly , staying popular by only anathemetizing the bitter….

its complicated & im sure im missing more of the pieces of the mosaic than ive got & some of them are in the wrong place , or upside down

but PACIFIC RIM-as-the-latest-in-a-series-of-discworld-fics-that-have-become-a-round-robin-@-some-point-before-2008/9-&-UNSEEN ACADEMICALS

makes all my greatest confusions into logical necessities by laws if narrative causality

oh & there are invisible trains in PYRAMIDS & INTERESTING TIMES

& engineers , & bridges

( yes i now know why sah ridley mocked HOGFATHER & the watch both in PROMETHEUS , & why his next own-goal is set in fantasy-myffic egypt – im not sure why he thinks its going to go better than his last bit of spellcasting , tho ! ! !)

yeah it is all there in PACIFIC RIM

bc it is all there in discworld

specifically it is allthere in PYRAMIDS

which is all one big DOCTOR WHO injoke from p1

so yeah

its nice knowing WHY i was right

even if it is surreal to be so thoroughly anti-jossed from both sides

& also worrying

for reasons i cant quite explain

that i figured it out backwards , by spotting the orig allusions via visuals

ALSO AGN JUST GOTTA CHEER FOR GUILLERMO RE THE CLEVER NEATNESS OF MAKIN THE “PRINCESS BRIDE” REF ***BE*** THE RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX ANSWER

( which btw in PYRAMIDS feels very much like a NEVERENDING STORY shoutout )

& havin BOTH of those refs , & the whole scn & its imagery , BE the tsortean war -sorry siege of troy- ref itself

wounded achaian statue & priam @ hectors pyre , working backwards to the seers warnings heeded & the serpent of the hostile gods shattered

& just as there is the simultaneous paired refs of the laocoon grp statue plus one degree of idris elba as ruthless american general OH PLUS UNDEAD in 28 DAYS LATER / 28 WKS LATER

& all fans shld instantly go OH YES WHO IS THE OTHER MODERN FANTASY AUTHOR WHO SAYS DONT FEAR THE DEAD & MONSTER IS AS MONSTER DOES–THATS RIGHT - bc the two main ones these days ARE pratchett & del toro whose undead are as likely to be good - or neutrals minding their own business -as evil

so fans of one SHLD jump to the other as parallel creators

just on that alone

but there is more
bc THE WIRE fits in , bc the watch vs mister chrysoprase plot - only chrysoprase wised up & got out of the drugs business , so its young lord rust & his cronies who moved into It as of SNUFF

so yeah it locks in

& yes the game was bein played thru s5 of THE OFFICE at least by elba the way he sneaked in the clue that his GHOST RIDER 2 : SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE chara was an avatar of his persona in THOR & my conjectures how it fits as discworld au all make sense

& the jokey shoutout to THE WIRE in THE OFFICE arc stops bein just a giggle & becomes A Clue

( which per INTERESTING TIMES is yet another fave game of the gods )

but its in THE LAST HERO that we get the imagery of “boots w teeth”

everyone can see where guillermo went w that one now , right ???

& it was in PYRAMIDS that an egyptian kings unacknowledged daughter was syncretized w elizabeth regina just as ledas daughter is syncretized w that older queen of england who was daughter of france & mother of lions - whose own daughter was queen of spain , & also eleanor –

now i just need to find a single unequivocal WWI ref in discworld

altho the lilacs in NIGHT WATCH are probably that , which stand in for the red remembrance day poppies

that now today are flooding the moat of the white tower of the plantagenets that was a roman fortress first in ceramuc effigy of what they stood for in flanders 100 yrs ago

( lest we forget )

( or be lulled to sleep-of-conscience by poppy dreams of bygone glory from which the entrails have curiously been left out of the picture….)

altho the fact that they are LILACS i have finally realized is not only bc lilacs are a likely thing bein as they are a hardy common urban flower

but was all along a NAPOLEON OF NOTTING HILL ref by sir terry

who already brought both STAR WARS & TRANSFORMERS into the discworld multiverse lang syne

even b4 he made it TINTIN fanfic in FIFTH ELEPHANT w a KING OTTOKARS SCEPTRE homage

& makin sybil a bianca castiafiore alt who saves the day by singing of love

& truth

but “plastic toys that turn into other plastic toys” & a certain space opera involving a princess & a farm boy & a pair of smugglers was in GOOD OMENS

along w cold war espionage of a lecarrean style

& good guys ( which has zip to do w alignment on the nametags) doin disobedience for the greater good

which might be part of the GREATER plan , in the end

which is also out of the same chesterton story that gave us the “room like the inside of a bomb” imagery & the twins / rivals / siblings themes of HELLBOY 2

so its nice to finally understand why liz sherman is the preincarnation of elizabeth swan

& why raleigh becket chatters all the time & isnt selfconscious abt showing (more than ) a little skin

& why charlie h called rinko an “assassin’ after she knocked him down in the b-roll footage
( that was a clue too , for them wha had een tae see–)