#the fifth elephant

[ross-hollander]

Something about Pratchett villains.

There's a lot of Pratchett villains who share one common thread: they're unromantic. They rip the charm and soul out of things.

Reach's service sends messages 'as warm and human as a thrown knife'. He himself 'kills people by numbers'.

Teatime is literally trying to kill Santa.

The Magpyrs turn the Gothic-vampire-novel style of the Old Count into industrial blood-harvesting.

Similarly, Wolfgang exchanges the traditional Game for just straight up killing people, and seeks to implement a werefascist regime to boot.

The Auditors are, by definition, made of unromantic. They are objectively unromantic.

And I think the idea of ripping apart the whimsy of things ties back to the idea of believing the little lies to believe the big ones. If you can't see charm and warmth, the dreams and imagination, you'll fall into what STP says is the biggest sin of all: treating people like objects.

#going postal #hogfather #carpe jugulum #the fifth elephant #reaper man #gnu terry pratchett #discworld

[solomonara]

Mrs. Sandwich, a seamstress (Good Omens Season 2)

and

The Seamstresses' Guild (Discworld)

(Men at Arms)

(Men at Arms)

(The Fifth Elephant)

#my delighted squeak when i realized what they did there! #these gifs do not do the delivery justice #good omens #good omens season 2 #mrs. sandwich #good omens 2 #the seamstresses' guild #discworld #terry pratchett #neil gaiman #men at arms #the fifth elephant #gifs #all images and gifs described provided tumblr didn't eat the alt text

[datsderbunnyblog]

Honorary mention for a quality Sam Vimes Dad Moment™

#sam vimes #the fifth elephant #gnu terry pratchett

[p4nishers]

[thru tears] yah the fifth elephant was nicq

#oh repressed trans ppl how i adore u #WHY would yall let my trans ass read this oh mh fucking god #the fifth elephant #cheery littlebottom #gnu terry pratchett #discworld #sam vimes #trans #transgender #again. this was published in 1999. if you even care.

[evilphrog]

I don’t know how anyone could say Terry Pratchett only made Cheery trans on accident. This man was out here writing about how gender identity and gender expression are two different things, making a point to show that Cheery does not have to perform femininity for her gender and pronouns to be respected, and he wrote all that in the year 2000.

Cheery is a woman. When she is surrounded by people who refuse to accept that, she feels pressured to look as girly as possible to stand up for herself and others like her. When she is surrounded by people who accept her, she may or may not feel in the mood for certain looks on certain days. She was able to stop being the Symbol For Gender Freedom In Ankh Morpork because she no longer had to prove that was worth fighting for. And she is still a girl when she wears pants. And she is treated as one.

#discworld #the fifth elephant #cheery littlebottom #liveblogging

[rayneydayss]

It is my favorite thing in the world when I notice an author leaving sneaky little fun things in the text, especially when it relates to linguistics.

Terry Pratchett does this the most out of anyone I’ve read; I’ve just started The Fifth Elephant (reading the Guards series for the first time!) and there’s teeny little linguistic quips built into the very text itself.

“It’s one of the major towns in Überwald, sir,” said Carrot, balancing the umlaut perfectly.

…

“Klatch? But they’re even farther from Uberwald than we are!” -Sam Vimes

“A large country, Uberwald” [Vetinari]

Pratchett, in dialogue, only uses the umlauts when someone who knows how to pronounce it properly is speaking. And I think it’s doubly funny that Vetinari can’t pronounce it right.

Has anyone else noticed stuff like this in other Discworld books?

#gnu terry pratchett #the fifth elephant #discworld

[paradises-library]

‘Any normal person, they crawl off if they get a beating. Or they have the sense to stay down, at least. But sometimes you get one who just won’t let go... Idiots who’ll go on fighting long after they should stop...’

‘I think I recognize the type, yes,’ said Lady Sybil, with an irony that failed to register with Sam Vimes until some days later.

- The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett

#the fifth elephant #terry pratchett #gnu terry pratchett #discworld #quotes

[pratchettquotes]

"Carrot! Don't you remember last night? Didn't you wonder what I might become? Didn't you worry about the future?"

"No."

"Why the hell not?"

"It hasn't happened yet. Shall we get back? It'll be dark soon."

Terry Pratchett, The Fifth Elephant

#angua von uberwald #carrot ironfoundersson #the fifth elephant #discworld #terry pratchett #werewolves #dating #relationships #fighting #existential crisis #logic #memory #past #present #future #worry #why not #it hasn't happened yet #what i might become

[gleefully-macabre]

Sam Vimes, you absolute legend. Assassins Guild has his price set at $600,000 in a world where one person could live modestly on $30 a month. I believe, on the Roundworld, that’d be comparable to John Wick’s highest bounty of $40 million.

However unlike in John Wick, that’s still not enough for anyone to make the attempt.

#Sam vimes #the fifth elephant #discworld #John wick #I’m not saying Sam Vimes is more badass than John Wick #I’m saying Discworld assassins are faster learners than Roundworld’s #who would win in a fight? #they wouldn’t fight #they’d chill over cigars and maybe show pics of their kid/dog #gnu terry pratchett

[dimity-lawn]

Why does Vimes being short seem to come as a surprise to some people?

Remember that not only is he called Vetinari's Terrier (terriers tend to be small dogs), but in The Fifth Elephant, Vimes initially fails to recognize the irony during a rant in which he mentions "Eight-stone" (112 lb. or 50.8 kg) fighters and uses the term "bantamweight". Even if his genetics would have allowed him to be taller, his background does not support the idea of him being anything but short.

Sam Vimes grew up not just in the Shades, but on Cockbill Street, a place where people couldn't afford to eat regularly. He and his mother probably faced hunger more frequently than some of their neighbors (though perhaps not as frequently as larger families) because Mrs. Vimes wouldn't accept money that was made immorally and because she was a single mother who didn't have the income of a husband to help cover expenses.

Consider how, in Night Watch, Vimes (as Keel) was shocked to see how skinny his younger self was, and that his younger self said that he joined the watch because a friend had told him that there was free food, a uniform, and that he could occasionally make an extra dollar. This shows a surprising difference between adult and young Vimes: with his adult and soon-to-be-father self being taken aback by the sorry sight of himself as a kid as well as his younger self openly and readily talking to a near stranger about how, at 17 years old, he's just now starting to get a sense of food security. Furthermore, in Guards!Guards!, it is stated that "He couldn't help remembering how much he'd wanted a puppy when he was a little boy. Mind you, they'd been starving - anything with meat on it would have done", which shows the extent of the hunger he faced in his youth.

Sam Vimes isn't someone of an average height that seems short simply because he spends so much time around tall people (such as Carrot, Sybil, and Vetinari), he is short. Vimes grew up without access to healthy or adequate quantities of food, therefore his growth was stunted by malnourishment, which likely means that he would be below the average height of a human citizen of Ankh-Morpork.

#discworld #gnu terry pratchett #thought(s) from yours truly #the watch #guards! guards! #the fifth elephant #night watch #vimes #sam vimes #ankh morpork #the shades #poverty and wealth

[theygotlost]

THE BEAST

#discworld #sam vimes #terry pratchett #the fifth elephant #samuel vimes #mine #YAYYYY VIMES COVER IN BLOOD AGAIN

[markwateneymemorialcrater]

So I’m listening to The Fifth Elephant (part of discworld) and I love how even the criminals stand in solidarity with the the city watch when they go on strike.

Like police are on strike. Seems like a good time for crime, but you know what. I may be a criminal, but I refuse to cross a picket line.

#discworld #terry pratchett #the fifth elephant

[milfdarthrevan]

DAMN IT TERRY

#THE DOG PEOPLE DON'T LIKE HIM CAUSE HIS NAME SOUNDS LIKE 'VETERINARY' #bonus points: sam mentions a bath at the end to throw them off their rhythm #discworld #honor reads discworld #the fifth elephant #sam vimes

[p4nishers]

#the fifth elephant #GODDAMN IT #samuel vimes #discworld #gnu terry pratchett #sybil ramkin

[stupidphototricks]

More Cheery Littlebottom, talking to Vimes (her commanding officer, hence the "sir"):

"Is that what you'll be wearing, Cheery?" "Yes, sir." "But it's just... ordinary dwarf clothes. Trousers and everything." "Yes, sir." "But Sybil said you'd got a fetching little green number and a helmet with a feather in it." "Yes, sir." "You're free to wear whatever you want, you know that." "Yes, sir. And then I thought about Dee. And I watched the king when he was talking to you, and... well, I can wear what I like, sir. That's the point. I don't have to wear that dress. I can wear what I like. I don't have to wear something just because other people don't want me to. Anyway, it made me look a rather stupid lettuce." -- Terry Pratchett,The Fifth Elephant (emphasis on "don't" added by me because I think it's important)

One of the many things that Sir Terry was excellent at is writing characters that start out as caricatures, and end up being the realest people ever. Cheery Littlebottom, who by the name is obviously a throwaway ridiculous character. And dwarfs in general (on Discworld, dwarfs and humans are two of many intelligent species) are absurd. Dwarfs sing songs about gold, they make inedible bread that's mostly used as weapons, they all have beards and wear helmets and carry axes. And yet. By the time you finish the book, real.

Now about Discworld dwarfs and gender. In dwarf society, gender is largely ignored and almost irrelevant; all dwarfs use the same pronouns, dress the same, do the same jobs. Gender-based discrimination can't even exist! I mean. Women in the real world have been fighting for this sort of equality for decades, right?

But it's not quite right. There's "equal," and then there's "being exactly the same as everyone else." So there are dwarfs who rebel against the homogeneous status quo by choosing to use different pronouns (she/her), and wear dresses and makeup.

Gender expression! It's a battle against the old ways, but dwarfs are good at fighting.

#terry pratchett #terry pratchett gnu #discworld #the fifth elephant #cheery littlebottom #sam vimes #sybil ramkin #gender

[softboiledwonderland]

I know Detritus carries a 2,000lb-draw crossbow as a hand weapon but I just want to kiss his little forehead sometimes

#detritus <3 #terry pratchett #discworld #the fifth elephant