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@tired-shadow-creature
each time I tell you those three words I mean them more and more
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this years 25th of may thought is about vetinari once again
vetinari who, after spending the entire book concealing himself in the scenery by forgoing the traditional but impractical black and camouflaging himself in greys and greens, who definitely used that unorthodox stealth to get INTO the palace, enters that ballroom in the very black assassin garb he kept on saying he wouldn't want to be caught dead in, literally. who enters that room with intent to kill a tyrant in the bright light, where everyone can see it. who, when asked who sent him, says "i come from the city".
after he did the deed, lady meserole and her allies covered it up, and the common people never get to know how winder died. getting him into that room required the whole of ankh-morpork's upper class to strategically look away at the right moment. in particular it is ankh-morpork's rising bourgeoisie, not the old nobility, who does all the backroom dealing to make the assassination possible. enterprising minds, merchants and guild leaders, proto-capitalists even, got rid of an inconvenient ruler to enthrone (what they thought was) their pet candidate, someone who would help businesspeople do business.
vetinari knows this, and that knowledge is what gets him into power later down the road. but he enters the room in a way that ensures he's seen, and he comes from the city, and he wants justice done in the light, the assassin in that moment not a rich idiot who does other rich idiots' killing, but an executor in the name of the people of society. and later, he's at the last barricade, in a street fight, killing with his hands to protect a handful of poor people who don't know him and the ghost of the people's republic, lilac blossom clutched in his mouth. how many perfectly unremarkable lives of the lilac baricadeers did he save in that fight? it says so much about vetinari's ideals and how they come through despite his cynicism about his lived reality
i just really love a rivals size difference it makes so much sense. i like the idea of techno's big cape robe thing being like hammerspace like he pulls cartoonishly big weapons and an impossible amount of potions out of there as though it's another dimension but weirdly dream can also access this dimension and no one knows how he does it. he crawls into technos robes like a bug and disappears and techno can talk to dream while he's in there but no one else can hear him. this is funnier when you consider techno being able to "equip" dream from his hammerspace meaning dream can try to escape into there and techno can simply pull him out by the scruff like no idiot i'm not covering for you go face whatever you're avoiding right now and then you get cape time
When his green arm returns to the bottom right of my screen All will be right in the world.
DREAM priv Tweet!
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Happy Glorious 25th of May
Small Gods and Good Omens, Or How It Might Have Gone
In 1992, two years after Good Omens, Small Gods was published and I think there could be some interesting parallels drawn here in terms of a potential continuation of Good Omens:
The Great God Om is currently a tortoise because despite the Empire run in his name he only has a single believer left. The rest belief in the structure, the Church, not him. They speak for him without hearing him, and Vorbis especially so.
The Metatron is the Voice of God, but he is not God. He doesn't know the Ineffabel Plan and we have no guarantee at all that he can even hear God, but he speaks for him. Perhaps he, too, believes more in Heaven and Hell than he does in his God. Perhaps he, too, speaks without really hearing.
The Omnian Empire wants a war. It thinks there should be a war, that Om wants them to fight it. Vorbis will even kill his own fellow believers if it means the war can proceed.
Heaven and Hell want a war. They think they must have a war, that it is written, that it is the will of God for them to fight it. The Metatron, and presumably Satan too, will gladly accept any collateral, even the lives of their own, if it means the war can proceed.
The Omnians are awaiting the arrival of their new prophet. The Great God Om doesn't think all that highly of people.
Heaven and Hell lost their Antichrist, but there is still the Second Coming for them to try. God watches his creation with interest but not exactly compassion anymore.
The Prophet Brutha is not what was expected, but he learns and he cares and he teaches his God to do the same. Om becomes more human. There does not need to be a war.
Christ is not what Heaven and Hell wanted either. He learns, he listens, he remembers and he cares about people and the world. He is God, but now he is once more human, too. There does not need to be a war.
The Prophet Brutha is an inconvenience. He is telling lies. Vorbis is the true prophet and Brutha will die for what he knows. For what he did and did not do.
Christ is an inconvenience. He is going against Heaven and Hell, against the Great Plan, so he must be wrong. He can't actually be God, there must have been a mistake somewhere. The Metatron knows what Gods will is and this is clearly not part of it. They'll just get rid of him and his and then try again.
The people, and the God, who came to trust Brutha step in to try and stop the Empire and to keep them from killing their own Prophet and by extension their last connection to their God.
The humans, and the Antichrist and the Angel and the Demon, that Christ came to know step in and try to stop Heaven and Hell and to keep them from killing their literal God just so they can destroy the world in a pointless fight.
Brutha is freed and manages to avert the oncoming war. Om agrees to a reform effort. A deal between him and Brutha for a better future with no more Quisitions. Omnia becomes more peaceful, more open, with people allowed to believe what they like.
Christ is freed and manages to avert the war. He is still God after all, he has the means at the end of the day. And together with his comrades he comes to the conclusion that things must change.
Maybe he agrees with the Antichrist that all this messing about needs to stop and he relieves Heaven and Hell from their duties. Fully allows Angels and Demons the same freedom as humans have, as he has. Let them believe, let them do, as they like, too.
Maybe he figures everyone would be better off a bit more human, a bit more caring. Perhaps living among humans would do the other angels and demons some good, just like it did for him and for Adam and Crowley and Aziraphale. Let them learn for themselves that the world is worth keeping.
Maybe he realises the whole eternal damnation thing was meant to be shut down ages ago and replaces it with a calm, temporary purgatory where people can figure themselves out before moving on. No more threats of falling or damnation, no more fear.
Maybe he does all of those and then some. But in any case, the world is a bit better, a bit kinder for it.
Pov you're Mary Morstan and you wanted to take a look at your husband's writing in The Strand only to find shit like "he had a delicate touch" "his long legs" (approximately 700 times) "his lithe frame" "the fire in his eyes" about the best friend he's been seeing a suspicious amount and that he drops everything he's doing for everytime he vaguely suggests at an adventure
There’s a lot of mystery surrounding First Sinner, and one of the most interesting is exactly when she was imprisoned. Depending on the era, she could’ve been sealed away by Grand Mother Silk, the Weavers, or the Conductors, and each would have significant implications on her story and the wider lore. Unfortunately, the evidence is too vague to say for sure, but it's worth exploring anyway.
One notable piece of evidence is that her corpse is found in a similar state as the other Weavers (fossilized/mummified in a stone spire), who all seemed to be respected individuals. If she was sealed by the Weavers, either they decided to bury her in this way in spite of her sins, or this is somehow a natural process for deceased Weavers. But there are a few differences between her grave and the rest.
The corpse itself is surrounded by Weaver-style stonework, but the rest of the cell is decorated with the ornate patterns and gilding of the Conductor-era Citadel. Did they add decorations to a cage that already existed, or did they build this cage around a spire? And the rough stone is notable. It doesn’t resemble the stone of the Slab and looks broken, as if the body was carved out from somewhere. Perhaps First Sinner was buried as a respected Weaver, only to later be disinterred and thrown in this cell as post-mortem punishment.
Imprisoning a corpse might sound bizarre, but we see firsthand how a Weaver’s strength and will can linger there long after death. And it’s not like weirder hasn’t happened in real life. For example, the Cadaver Synod was a trial in 897 where the nine-month-dead corpse of Pope Formosus was exhumed, put on trial, declared guilty of numerous crimes, and thrown in the Tiber river. I wouldn't put it past the Citadel to make a similar production of punishing their deceased enemies.
But at the same time, her cage is littered with needles, implying a battle. The events of Silksong show that First Sinner is absolutely capable of putting up a fight long after death, but we only fight her in a dream and those needles seem quite real. Plus, her rage makes more sense as a response to something done in her lifetime rather than after her death. Still, there's too little information to say for sure, and I'd love to hear what other people think about her.
The ending of Show Omens is not the ending of Book Omens (or of it's non-existent sequel). There are several reasons that I think make this a fairly solid conclusion:
For one, Book Omens doesn't have a sequel. And it almost certainly was never really going to have one. I mean, it was published in 1990. Terry Pratchett died in 2015. That's 25 years in which they could have written a sequel but chose not to.
In fact, in an interview thing that's conveniently included with my copy of the book, they answer the question "Why is there no sequel?" like this:
Does this sound to you like they have an actual, fleshed out plan for a sequel? It sounds more like they were just throwing ideas around, not even in a drafting phase yet, for a story they didn't really expect to fully write. They also last did this at least 11 years ago, likely much longer.
At best, whatever parts of their ideas made it into the show are the result of one of the two people involved using pieces of something unfinished, likely barely even started, from years ago, without the input of the other author. It certainly can not be a fully accurate representation, simply because one of the people involved is no longer able to add his own insight.
But also, just looking at the book itself, it doesn't really strike me as being written with a sequel in mind. It literally ends with a vision of the future, which is fairly conclusive and also not particularly compatible with the show ending:
This ending does not exactly scream "needs continuation" or "there is further trouble ahead". More the opposite, really.
The scene right before this ending also serves as a very neat bookend and conclusion to the whole story, with Adam stealing an apple and deciding that life would be less fun if people didn't. That eating the apple was worth the trouble you got into for doing so.
The closest we get to foreshadowing a sequel is Crowley mentioning the possibility of the "Big One". But it's not exactly treated as something that is bound to happen. So while I guess it's possible it was actively meant to imply a sequel, the rest of the ending makes it somewhat unlikely imo. More likely it's either incidental or a more vague consideration without an actual, already existing plan attached.
Secondly, it would require a somewhat strange genre and tone shift. Good Omens is a comedy that parodies various things (The Omen, Revelations, The Cold War) to make it's point in a fairly light hearted way. It's universe is somewhat silly but also hopeful.
For it to end the way the show did, it would realistically have to change it's genre. It would have to be a Drama or even Tragedy with a story that seems to have somewhat lost it's parody elements as well as it's hope for the future. Which would be a very strange thing for the sequel to a fairly light hearted and hopeful comedy to do.
It would also be very odd in terms of how Terry Pratchett books usually end. Like, even the more bleak Discworld novels, like Night Watch, do end with the world in tact and at least marginally better than before. There is always hope for the world there. An ending in which the world can not be saved and every single character experiences identity death would be very much out of the norm. (I can't say if it would be for Gaiman, the only other book of his I ever read was Coraline).
Finally, related to this, it is not thematically consistent. Some of the major themes and points of Good Omens are, I would argue:
Both the best and worst of humanity is purely humanity's doing. They have a capacity for great good and evil and either way deserve to exist as they are. Free will and the knowledge of good and evil were worth the cost.
Just because it is written, does not mean it must be done. You can not and should not live your life doing only what someone else has decided you ought to be or do. Your choices, human choices, matter and they make a real difference.
The future may seem bleak, there may be a lot of things wrong, but it is not hopeless and it is worth fighting for. This world and its people are worth fighting for. The only real way to improve it is to get it into people's heads that their actions have consequences and that they should be kinder to each other and the environment.
The show ending is thematically opposed to this. Humanity's will and choices are not the deciding factor, do not make the ultimate difference. The humans of the old universe do not deserve to exist as they are. That imperfect world is not worth saving, can not and should not be saved.
As far as the show seems concerned, Adam, at his worst, was right. The world wasn't salvageable, it's best if we just destroy it and start all over again.
It would be extremely strange to have a sequel contradict the themes of the original like this. Especially since the original themes are ones extremely common in Terry Pratchetts work in general while the shows treatment of humanity, the world and it's future really don't seem to mesh well with them at all.
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So, if the leaked audition sheets and some other comments are to be believed, Alastor died in his late 30s-early 40s. I, however, am calling BULLSHIT on this.
Firstly, his appearance. The human Alastor flashback we see is set in 1933, the year he died. Does he look anywhere near 40? Hell, even 35? No, he really doesn't. Look at this guy.
Some may say it's just a consequence of Hazbin's art style that he looks younger. However, this isn't the case with Vincent, who we know for sure is in his 40s or 50s. He has wrinkles, gray hairs, and visible eyebags, and he very clearly ages across the "Brighter" sequence. Alastor has none of these, not even dark circles. He only looks early 30s at oldest, and that's if I'm being quite generous.
But appearance isn't the only factor. Look, the Hellaverse isn't known for its historical accuracy (as seen with Vox's backstory, which is historically impossible), but having Alastor die in his late 30s/40s leaves some gaps in his timeline that need way more explaining for me to ignore them.
Let's say he's 40, the youngest he could be for it to comply with the leaked audition sheets. For him to die in 1933, he would have to have been born in 1893 (at the latest). This is fine on its own—however, considering the timeline of radio, I'm skeptical.
Radio has existed since this time period, however it was not a thing. The technology was so rudimentary it was hardly even useful until people started using it in nautical navigation in the 1910s. But even then, it wasn't even close to being advanced enough to broadcast the human voice. Morse code was the only thing it could transmit, and this continued throughout World War 1.
It couldn't reliably broadcast anything as complicated as speech (and certainly not music) until the very late 1910s/early 1920s. Only then did it start to be used as entertainment, with radio stations starting up and people buying radios for their home so they could listen to music. This is when the radio host became a concept—it didn't exist as an option any time before this. (New Orleans' first radio station, specifically, was started in 1923.)
So, bringing this back to Alastor. Should he have been born in 1893, he couldn't have grown up with radio in pretty much any capacity. He would've already been an adult when it actually became widely used, and by the time his position as a radio host was created, he would've been in his 30s. This in itself is completely possible—however, there's not even a single mention of any other job he had. And he would've had to have one, because kids started working young, and you can't just go 10+ years without a job.
It seems far more likely that he was actually in his late twenties (30-33 at the oldest), and born from 1900-~1906. That way, there would have been excitement around the emerging technology of radio when he was a kid/teenager, and he would've gotten into it. He could've reasonably set his sights on radio, even if the entertainment factor hadn't developed yet. He wouldn't have had 10+ years in another career (that's mysteriously left out) before suddenly switching to radio.
In short: Alastor being aged in his late 30s-40s is not the most sound timeline-wise without further explanation, and based on what we know now, it would make much more sense for him to be late 20s-early 30s. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
Is it just me?
I want to take a minute to just look at season 3 from the perspective of an avid reader and as, is that ending really what Sir Pterry (GNU) would have given us? This doesn't feel like a Pratchett ending to me, not because he couldn't write bittersweet endings, but thematically and based on what he's written in the past. Giving the boys that ending doesn't feel like something he would have planned, written, or signed on for. It's obviously not my place to say "oh, this author would have wanted THIS ending" or "this author would never write that!" which is why I'm sticking with "doesn't feel like" but I do want to look at the themes involved through the lens of what's been written in the past.
Full disclosure, I've always been a fan of Sir Pterry and the discworld and had much more mixed feelings about that other guy's writing, but I will try to be unbiased in my examination.
yo…. when jet breaks in the tea shop and accuses zuko and iroh of beinh firebenders….
do you think any of the patrons looked at zukos scarred face - obviously done by a firebender - and immediately think jet was an asshole? like
jet: hes a firebender!!!!
patrons, thinking about the backstory they concocted for zuko and iroh where their home was invaded by firebenders and they barely survived with their lifes so they could come and have a peaceful life selling tea in a city the war doesnt touch:
Jet: He’s a firebender!
The Patrons to the Tea Shop internally: You fucking stupid, sir? I think you might be stupid.
#if someone shouted something racialized at a food service worker and he pulled swords#if be like ‘yeah that’s fair’
He didn’t even use his own swords. He took them from a guard and the guards let him
DREAM posted a Short!
Ok extra context from your friendly neighborhood Master's Degree holding archivist:
Archives are "curated" according to what's called a "collection policy". That means a policy that dictates what you collect; usually along a theme. For example at the university I used to work at the collection policy was to collect archival material pertaining to the local area and its history/important figures. At the historic home I currently work at, the collection policy covers materials pertaining to the person who lived at the house.
AO3 collects fan works and original writing. That's it. That's how they "curate". They don't allow a copy paste of published works (for legal reasons) and they don't allow commissioned works (for legal reasons) . Everything else that falls under fan works and original writing is part of their collection policy. Everything. That's how archives work.
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crivals and their exclusive rituals are so important to me. like hey man. let's posture at each other for 10 minutes and then go play "shoot each other with arrows until one of us whines about armor durability" and then we can insult each other afterwards. same time next week? awesome. bye dude. and somehow they have the least dysfunctional friendship on the entire server
them smacking each other and playing stupid games and keeping the bit going for so long because the other is laughing.....
it's just really interesting to me because on the surface, their relationship is complicated and slightly dysfunctional based on everything around them but like you said, it's weirdly functional compared to everyone else??? like they know exactly where they stand with each other and neither of them have betrayed the other. and they both want the same thing, on broad terms.
it gets me so much.
i 100% believe that c!rivals duo come up with their own weird games to play and then speak about them like they're An Actual Thing everyone else knows about like c!techno is bragging about beating c!dream in Creeper Arrow Toss first try and dream is getting pissy because it actually took techno, like, five times to actually beat him and techno is just 'nuh-uh' and c!tommy is fed up and asking what the fuck Creeper Arrow Toss is and techno just goes, 'pfft this guy doesn't know what Creeper Arrow Toss is, dream' and dream is like 'hehe y-yeah what a loser' and tommy is gonna kill them both.
