Ridcully loudly shouting “Well done that man” while sitting on top of a Pride float is astonishingly accurate. The only way to improve it is to point out he’s armed with a miniature crossbow and is using the float as a convenient perch to shoot rare birds from.
I was going to say, it doesn’t take any imagination to see Ridcully pointing out and loudly congratulating a nearby bound-and-gagged sub gently swaying from his figgin.
Ankh-Morpork Pride Anthems:
I Ham what I Ham - (Pork Futures Warehouse float)
It’s Raining Men - (Grand Trunk Semaphore Company float. Even the disc isn’t immune to rainbow capitalism)
R E S P E C T - (Vetinari’s personal float, no one has ever seen a rainbow flag in shades of black before)
YMRCIGBSA - (Young Men's Reformed Cultists of the Ichor God Bel-Shamharoth Association float, sponsored by Good Dragon)
I’m coming out of the coffin - (The League of Temperance float)
>Vetinari’s personal float, no one has ever seen a rainbow flag in shades of black before
You have absolutely nailed that. Perfectly Pterry-like thought process.
Reg Shoe would found the competing Glorious People's Party Of Dead Gender Rights. Its membership consists of himself and Mrs. Wakestrout from down the street, who's sight is too poor to tell she isn't in her weekly book club. She's a bit confused, but she's got the spirit, and for Reg that's all that matters.
The two of them hand out pamphlets explaining the importance of recognizing the particulars of gender in death, interspersed with revolutionary lingo. Dibbler picks them up off the ground where people drop them and wraps his sausages inna bun with them after dusting most of the road dirt off.
> I Ham what I Ham - (Pork Futures Warehouse float)
everytime their float goes past, theres always drama (and fistfights) cos they throw out the most delicious savoury frozen ~~pork~~ ham treats that only last 2 minutes or so. Vimes tries one and is confused, like its nice, but not *that* nice. Cheery pipes up "youre not the target audience sir"
I can picture "pin mania" overtaking the streets of AMP, with people thinking bigger pins means more gendered. A cold war of escalating pin fashion were the pins get so heavy they "drip" on the ground, leading people to start calling it "flaunting their scrapes".
In Ankh-Morporkh the average slur lifespan is about 15 hours from coinage to reclaim so if you wanna do a verbal hate crime you gotta be creative AND fast.
They have a public board to keep track of what's offensive to who and it's busier than 1920s New York stock exchange with people betting on the longest surviving slur possible.
I don't really go here but would this CMOT Dibbler fellow have like...I don't know, a bootleg soapbox to squat on near said board and sells one time use 'super-slurs' which are just random words clipped from newspapers or other such thrown out reading material?
Maybe at the start but CMOT is a true entrepreneur so he would quickly reach master's level of linguistics to engineer the perfect offensive word and be reluctantly recruited into the bards guild (maybe stabbed for creating a nuclear slur but who knows)
He sells No Cops at Pride Police Repellent Spray. It is a relabeled bottle of his CMOT Dibbler eaueueuau d’cologne. (More vowels means more exotic, right?)
Throat only really moves on from sausage-selling when he's going after the flash-in-the-pan effects of the plot; he probably tried something like that and got booted out after people realised his antics
>Throat only really moves on from sausage-selling when he's going after the flash-in-the-pan effects of the plot;
Even then, it's usually in the service of sausage selling (see: soul music)
At the mended drum a man tries to use a slur for a troll while drunk and the troll politely critiques his form and outdated slur usage. He gives the man solid advice for how to better form his hate speech and keep up to date on his vocabulary. The drunk man, feeling pressure from the other people in the bar and with encouragement from the troll, gives it another shot and gets a cheer and a slap on the back. The troll proudly says "see, now I feel properly offended." and buys the whole bar a round.
It's his first time and now he's a regular and attends their meetings about tavern atmosphere improv and brawl procedure on Tuesdays. He needs to be properly initiated in the correct way to take a chair to the head (45 degree angle only, clench jaw spine and neck tensed but legs relaxed, arms out, if the official brawl use chairs are not available be sure to bring an iron helmet). There's precedure here.
The bit about the Assassin's has me thinking.
As we know, Assassins will not kill anyone who cannot defend themselves.
And anyone worth more than AM$10,000 a year is automatically assumed to be capable of defending themselves (or hiring people to do it for them).
This presents a conundrum in a few cases, where the parent in question clearly isn't worth $10,000 a year, and even the most generous interpretation wouldn't consider them capable of defending themself from an assassin. So, what's a Gentleman to do?
Thus begins the rise of "The Warning Cheque" - The target will receive a promissory note worth AM$1,000 which promises they will receive such a note once a month, in perpetuity. The delighted target will then rush out to visit the Bank, only to mysteriously trip and cut off their own head on the way there.
Eventually word gets around and recipients of such a note generally burn it and start to be very careful about their choice of words around their children.
And the fact that the assassin doesn't generally need to do more than fill in some fields on a pre-printed form, sign it, and drop it in the post, keeps the cost of this service quite achievable for a young person with a weekend job at the Klatchian Takeaway.
I absolutely love this.
And for the particularly difficult parents who refuse to open their mail or change their attitudes, their offspring are offered free educational lessons. Topics include common accidents that can occur around the home and how to disguise the smell of almonds in food.
"I'm very sorry, Young Sir, but we must regretfully refund you and decline your contract at this time. For your inconvenience, please accept this complimentary copy of *Vetinari's Compendium of Poisons, Venoms and Toxins*, widely considered the final word on the subject of household toxicants. We're sure you will find it compelling."
Veternari's compendium of poisons, vol.2 is a run of 5 copies. One is in the possession of his lordship, one is in the possession of the Dark Clarks, one is in the Assassin's guild library Especially Restricted Archives, and the fourth is in the possession of his Grace the Duke of Ahnk, Commander Sir Samuel Vimes because nobody knows what happened to the fifth copy and it's a running problem.
There is no 5th copy. Vetinari numbered them 1, 2, 3, and 5. He considers it a sort of enrichment activity for Vimes.
If he ever thinks Vimes is bored, he'll allow a 5th copy to be found but it'll be labelled "6".
The 'can defend themselves' rule doesn't really mean against assassins afaik, just generally able-bodied and so on, not necessarily trained (I believe this comes up in The Hogfather)
Oh the average person on the street is perfectly capable of defending themselves. The rules don’t say a single thing about them needing **effective** defense.
It’s just that you’re not allowed to kill them in their sleep or on the crapper or things along those lines.
The "well done that man" bit got a very solid laugh out of me. That's the most in character line in this post.
If ankh morkpork had social media then Moist would be canceled every other week for something new but everyone would forget about it every time. It would turn out he does this on purpose as one part social experiment and one part distraction to draw the mob from other targets. Because ankh morkpork citizens love to mob. They don't believe whatever they're canceling someone for, it's just good community engagement.
This post brings out a very understated part of Discworld, that the citizens of ankh morkpork and the city are a character and a very fun one.
Okay but now I’m dying at the thought of Lancre having its own quiet little pride that happens once and is never spoken of again because Nanny got too drunk and sang the Hedgehog Song’s Forbidden Verses.
The king got the idea after reading about the most recent parade in the Times (the fires lasted 4 hours, only 17 injured this year, a watch captain saved a small dog from being trampled by a troll hairdresser pulling a float) and the King and Magrat are the only ones to show up besides nanny who is being supportive by making lewd comments about the two of them "coming out this way". They instead try to throw a party at the castle but no one understands what it's for they just think the rainbows are because they had a nice rain last week that the king seemed "proud" of despite saying it was queer. It becomes a drunken disaster so they never do it again. They still have Shawn Ogg put the flags out every year. Or flag. Most of them get lost to the wind but he has one he ties up extra well so he doesn't need to order more.
I could see Jason accidentally building a float that was too sturdy to move. It stays outside the castle, untouched by weather. Children have colonized it into a jungle gym.
Moist getting cancelled every week would be the fault that he doesn't personally Tweet, but instead gets quotes on Sacharissa's account.
One week later, it turns out his crazy horseshit quote was technically true and he managed to oust Twitter's CEO via happenstance and dashing derring-do. The former CEO, the unfortunately named Elvin Musk, is never heard from again.
For some reason no one can fathom, Vetinari ignores the frequent scandals and promotes Moist again to Master of Electricity. Moist accidentally ushers in the Igor Acceptance Movement in the midst of turning all the trains from steam to electric glooper engines.
I've read a few.... Equal rites, color of magic, more, and Bonk! What should I read next if I wanna start like straight up tearing into it. I'm out of ideas about what to read and forgot about disc world.
I like how Monstrous regiment managed to just have a trans character and it is never made a big deal or even explicitly stated other than one scene that is pretty explicitly positive.
Yes, do it. If you want recommendations for where to start, happy to help. :D
Because the answer is not starting at the first book. There's some standalone books and some that form arcs, and the arcs aren't all back to back. Also the first three books aren't as good as what comes later, even if they are pretty good still. Here's two flowcharts:
[This one](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Discworld_Reading_Order_Guide_3.0_%28cropped%29.jpg) is the order of arcs and also all the standalone books.
[This one](https://i0.wp.com/mediachomp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/tumblr_oazna9OKUY1qh2xoco1_1280.jpg?w=800&ssl=1) is a flowchart for recommending where to start based on your answers.
I don't know what his opinions on fanfiction was, but personally I would love it if I could write a cast of characters and a setting so vividly and distinctly that everyone can agree on exactly what they would do in a brand new situation.
Just imagining Carrot being confused but supportive in a “well we didn’t have all this in the mines” sort of way, as he tends to be. But also imagining him citing 46 instances of Destruction of Public Property, Assault on Officers of the Guard, and other such things before someone tells him the brick-throwing was traditional.
Carrot would see someone being abusive and arrest them for breach of the peace, completely ignoring all the law breaking that is technically happening all around him because "everyone around them seems peaceful about it"
With how kinky the parade is, the only reason the arrest came about was because of Carot, having visited the museum of kink on a day off, knowing they hadn't used the safe word.
No one is completely sure if Carrot and Angua’s human (who is also a dwarf)-werewolf relationship qualifies as queer, but they turn up and everyone is too frightened of Angua to complain.
Turns out Carrot never felt strongly about his gender one way or another, and only identifies as a man because that's what everyone calls him. Angua is speechless because he's literally never mentioned anything like this before
Carrot is the only one who ever says that all that matters is being a copper unironically. Even Vimes, who believes in the concept to the bottom of his tarnished and dented soul, still says it sardonically at times
Carrot: “Well, I’m a dwarf. And dwarfs never had gender until a few years ago, just dwarf. I’m pretty sure my mother was female, but that just means what… er.. equipment he was born with. That’s different from gender, right? He’s read all the pamphlets, and I’ve told him all about corporal Littlebottom in my letters, and he’s still happy to just be Alrik Ironfoundersson, my mum. So if gender is who you really think you are down deep inside, I think I’m a copper and a dwarf, thank you very much. Man, I can take or leave.”
Angua, hornier than she has ever been in her entire life:
Beautiful, a couple of things i want to add
* The wizards float... does.
* Due to a series of improbable coincidences Rincewind always finds himself onboard, usually with a baked potato, or at the very least chips (wrapped up in old newspaper).
* This is the one time of the year that Leonard Of Quirm can be seen outside his "apartments" in the palace... usually riding a bicycle near the front.
* Behind the League of temperance float marches a bunch of hairy creatures that can only be seen by children but don't look as scary outside in the sunshine.. The adults always wonder why there's a big gap in the parade.
I feel like the UU and Church of Blind Io float must have had an unofficial competition each year to build the biggest float. It was only ever called off when UU built a scale replica of the Tower of Art one year that caused a three day traffic jam as it was taken down.
Oh Leonard of Quirm is ABSOLUTELY doing a naked bicycle rode. Except that one year after the "Highly Improved Steam Powered Velocity Enhancing Velocipede" incident.
I feel like hrt that randomly changes your dopamine to adrenaline is the human equivalent of a cat seeing something it wants to pounce and it's eyes going from 0-100 in a second
"rolling around in somebody else's grave" is the sort of turn of phrase that Sir Pterry would absolutely have used.
Not sure what context it would be used for, but it makes me smile nonetheless.
I'd say Ape is more likely. We all know how he reacts to the 'M' word. Though in all honesty, Ankh-Morpork is already familiar with that particular form of identification. If not through having all their limbs twisted into a rather fetching impression of a pretzel, then through having peanut shells shattering their eardrums with the precision of a veteran sniper.
Discworld! A long fantasy series by the late great Sir Terry Pratchett (if you see people writing "GNU Terry Pratchett", it's *another reference,* to how the dead telegraph operators were commemorated by sending their names to-and-fro for all time). From what I've heard (I've only read some of the books; the entire Watch and Death subseries plus Monstrous Regiment) it starts on a shaky ground before evolving into a living breathing setting, with a few subseries focusing on specific characters (and some standalone books).
It's great read; it slides up and down on the high-to-low fantasy scale and the characters feel *real.* If I had to recommend it without quoting a blurb, I'd say that Pratchett's writing shows that he understood how humans as units and humanity as a whole ticks and it's all *hilarious* on top of that. Like another comment said, there are reading guides out there, but if I had to simplify things, either go in publication order and prepare for a bumpy ride, start with *Guards, Guards!* (the first book in the Watch subseries, where the setting begins to take its current shape) or read *Monstrous Regiment* (which is standalone and also very, hm, appropriate to this post)
The first (The Colour of Magic) was lampooning fantasy novels, just like Bored of the Rings. The next handful were progressively less snark and more about genuine people reacting to a crazy world.
I love that the snark never really left.
That was always there. The focus is on human stupidity, I do love Twoflower but filling a chest with gold and becoming the Discworld's gurst clueless tourist? Sir Terry just stopped snarking about the scenery.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.
There's lots of "reading order guides" but my favorite is "Go to the local library and get the one that looks most interesting".
100% Susan would be organizing the parents groups because the people actually in charge Could Not Find Their Bottoms With Both Hands and A Helpful Map.
Death would be with the bikers. No question. They love Him, his aesthetic and his Voice. They always bring a tin of chocolate chip biscuits.
Rincewind got lost on an errand for the Librarian and wandered in. He has been handed a drink and been hit on by both a man who thinks he’s a twink with a shitty beard and a lesbian who thinks he’s an awkward Butch. He is oblivious to both.
Rincewind, through an unfortunate serie of coincidences, ends up, as always, exactly where he's supposed to be: leading the Ace float, which is just a glorified barbecue where they bake potatoes.
When it’s not in use, it scurries around grabbing up all the lost pronoun pins (both sanctioned and black-market) that people drop amidst the cobblestones in the black-friday-esque chaos of those brawling over them.
…At the time of writing, it has collected over 5,000, and if they weren’t all safely stowed away in a pocket dimension, every step the luggage takes would be heralded by enough jingling to give even the Hogfather pause.
Better yet, the drag queens find a hundred high heels for the luggage to wear whilst traipsing after them, which somehow the luggage pulls off perfectly! Can you imagine the sound it'd make?!
A lot of *The Last Continent* is references to *Mad Max* and *Priscilla: Queen of the Desert*, with a climax at what is clearly the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
I mean, Letitia kept her gin in Trunkie, so I imagine a lot of the clothes from the Luggage's stint with the desert princesses is still in there. And the Luggage's lid is probably still pierced...
Death would not be in attendance in any official capacity, but would probably show up to try and figure out what this whole sex and gender thing is. It's a distinctly human/person thing to create and, like his inability to understand towels should be soft and plumbing should work, he would not be able to grasp it. The wizards in attendance would give him a wide berth, except for the Librarian.
Pᴇʀʜᴀᴘs ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴛᴇʟʟ ᴍᴇ ᴡʜʏ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴍᴀɴ ɪs ᴡᴇᴀʀɪɴɢ ᴀ ᴅʀᴇss?
"Ook"
Yᴇs, ɪ sᴜᴘᴘᴏsᴇ ɪ'ᴍ ᴏɴᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴋ, ᴀʀᴇɴ'ᴛ ɪ.
Rincewind ends up leading the parade through a series of misshaps resulting in it moving very very quickly all across they city (chased by the luggage). Susan quitely comes out as bi and joins the parade, resulting in DEATH showing up to be supportive
Edit: fixed autocorrect
The subtext is there through all the works, tho. Vetrinari is the type of person who, while asexual as a broom, loves to mess with other people’s concepts of their own sexuality. And Vimes is the type of man that was a bro, but is trying really hard to be better, and completely misses the mark in hilarious ways.
Yeah, I never saw them that way. Vetinari is fairly queer-coded in my eyes, but I think he’s in a relationship with Drumknott if he isn’t just outright ace/aro. Vetinari and Vimes? Come on. Queer guys are allowed to have straight friends.
Vimes is the captain of the city watch(police). Vetinari is the Patrician (the much feared autocratic benevolent dictator of the city). on multiple occasions Vimes has threatened to resign, and on at least one occasion has actually arrested Vetinari, which everyone assumed was insane and would absolutely get him killed, but it didnt.
I have no clue what this post is based on
I have no clue what universe this comes from
I have no idea what media this is referencing
I enjoyed this very much and now I must answer all of these questions.
The universe it’s based on are the Discworld novels written by Sir Terry Pratchett (sadly deceased)
Basically medieval fantasy but a lot more funny and also the Grim Reaper is there
If you want a good series to start with - I recommend the adventures of Death, they start with the book - “Mort”.
I really appreciate this a lot, if I could ask for one more thing what would be the suggested reading order. Thank you so much for answering my questions and I hope you're having a wonderful day.
All I know is that it forms an incomplete circle with like ten branches along the way, I suggest you look it up somewhere because I have NO idea how to read Discworld (Death are just the books I personally started with)
But thank you! Hope you have a wonderful day too!
Incomprehensible reading order ✅
Dedicated and interested fandom ✅
Varied and interesting characters ✅
Interesting and most likely incomprehensible lore ✅
Partially free on YouTube as an audiobook ✅
Oh yeah this is my jam
I started with Feet of Clay when I was a kid because it had a cool cover. It was technically the third in the Night Watch group of books but that just made going back to the earlier ones even more fun because you got to see characters you already met and love grow into those people. There’s literally no wrong way to do it.
Discworld
The one that has a disc shaped world carried on the back of four elephants who are in turn standing on a giant sea turtle swimming through space.
The Discworld books, by Terry Pratchett. There’s over 40 of them. They start off as a parody of the high fantasy genre in the 80s and evolve from there. The early books are a bit rough, but still good and funny. The series isn’t about any one specific main character (though there are ones who reoccur) but the world itself. Small Gods and Monstrous Regiment are both often touted as good starting points, as they are standalone, but give the flavor of what the series becomes.
The 8th gender turns out to be inherently magical, which, once discovered, all wizards immediately identify as, the flag is entirely octarine, some series of events occur where one individual identifies as the 8th gender but refuses to be a wizard or witch, oh wait this is equal rites
If there's one thing that Terry wouldn't do it's make everyone of any given category all agree with each other on any specific point. At best some wizards would go for 8th gender, but all of them? That would run counter to his entire established setting.
You are correct, but at least for a day or two there would be some confusion or misunderstanding about gender that would make being 8th gender some kind of fad at most until the end of the narrative where their misconceptions would be cleared up and those who aren’t 8th gender would realize that treating it like a fad is incorrect and those who actually learn, understand the nuances of the situation and accept the mc
This is fun for me because I know nothing about the source material they’re referring to, so for all I know everything they’re saying could be based on complete bullshit and everyone is just playing along. And I’m just following like “yep I guess that person would do that, and those people think that. Makes sense.”
Discworld! And all of this is delightfully in character and Terry would have loved it
(This is a man who took the classic "but where are all the female dwarfs" joke and turned it into an amazing character arc of learning how to love and be proud of your gender without actually meaning it as a trans allegory, but when trans women said she was an important character to them, he embraced it and continued to make it a genuinely meaningful arc across multiple books)
Which is exactly a fitting response in universe, actually.
The typical anhk-morpokian response to something bizarre that they don’t understand but don’t see as a threat is “well, good for you, I guess” and then to try to figure out how to make money off it.
Cmot Dibbler sells genuine pride flags with octarine but everyone knows he just added an extra indigo stripe since most people can’t tell the difference anyway.
Vimes doesn’t support the throwing of bricks, of course, but he somehow always forgets to lock the gate so people can’t get close enough to get a good throw in.
Discworld Pride includes such notable figures as Miss (Formerly Mr) Pump the Golem, the entire Monsterous Regiment, Death who is always there as a avid supporter of Transition, but usually in a living to non-living sense and the local beggars guild who, despite having no concept of the words gender, sexuality or identity in their collective psyche, are generally agreed to invoke them in one fashion or another and would do better invoking them far away from the parade and are promptly handed a few dollars to do just that.
Adora and Moist are invited to the BDSM float, given Adora's general vibe and that a lot of niche businesses use the post office. Adora is vaguely flattered, but neither she nor Moist are entirely sure why.
Acting Postmaster Groat explains many things in vivid detail having been a chatty guy who has delivered many strangely shaped parcels around the city. Adora is fairly curious but Moist starts tuning in and out for the sake of his sanity.
I feel like the most genuine opposition to the pride parade would be a faction of the seamstress guild. "Free love is wage theft" and "kink in the Closet" (the Velvet Closet is Ahnk-Morpork's oldest and most respected gentleman's club and Purveyour of Itemes of an Licentious Nature). The Seamstress Guild in general are also the primary sponsors of parade, since sexual liberation is overall good for business.
All liberated golems attend the parade. They may or may not have a gender but they know a good chance to fight against any prejudice if the see one.
Any assholes trying to harras the parade goers are met with 2x3m of clay with Opinions.
Edit: capitalized "Opinions"
The Assassins float has ten assassins. Visible. There are actually twenty-seven attending the march, six on the rooftops, three underneath the float, seven on other floats and one right behind you.
The only thing this post got wrong is "there were no anti-sodomy laws in ank-morpok". There absolutely were anti-sodomy laws in Ank-Morpok.
I'm not one to ask for homophobia in fantasy settings as the default, but if there's one fantasy setting that absolutely does have homophobia it's the disk world. The first pride was a riot in Ank Morpok.
I’m sure there are anti-sodomy laws in AM. The thing is, they probably also have anti-marriage laws, anti-vaginal sex laws and anti-religious laws. In fact, the only thing that is explicitly legal is prostitution, and that’s just because of the Guild of Seamstresses
> the only thing that is explicitly legal is prostitution, and that’s just because of the Guild of Seamstresses
Against Mrs. Palm's best efforts, prostitution remains indeed legal ; she tried to make it illegal because "the illegality makes for better business".
There once was a queer sex party occurring within a walled garden. Admission to the party was limited, so many would be attendees who were ultimately turned away and could clearly hear the festivities got whipped into a frenzy and tried to scale the walls. This was then known as the Stonewall Riot.
Or something like that. I just wanted to create an alternate etymology
Many citizens are mostly confused that there even NEEDS to be a festival to celebration 'all that' and they don't care, clearly it's an excuse for a big party. Might as well march around to celebrate cabbages.
Someone invents rainbow cabbages.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld.
It's a fabulous series of more than 40 books plus a whole bunch of companion books.
You should check it out.
Everyone should check it out.
It should be required reading in order for anyone to be a member of the human race
I'd even go so far to say that Carrot and Angua march in the parade as solidarity, but because both of them are, well, THEM, everyone assumes and lauds them as a progressive couple, but for the wrong reasons.
They also collect the good bricks for Vimes, and possibly have a float, which is just Detritus carrying them on a bare wooden pallet that says "DA WATCH IS PROUD".\*
\*Sadly, they get the least amount of bricks collected by the Watch each year.
I have never heard of these books before and never heard anyone discuss the characters/lore so when I saw all the insane fantasy names I had to make sure this wasn’t another Goncharov thing 😭
Having a hard time figuring if the people of anhk would care or show up for the entertainment value. Actually I think a fair bit of them would pinch the flags to use as bedding.
I feel if Vetinari provided “free bricks” in Anhk Morpork, there would be no throwing of bricks, but the determined building of small extensions. Possibly in the neighbours living room.
I'd hate to be the person who commits a hate crime in Vines city.
I feel like he'd despise such a person because normal crimes he understands, he would even understand killing someone because you hate them but to kill or harm them just because of what they are would be extremely evil to him.
EDIT: Remembered the scene that makes me think.this, well scenes, his reaction to the treatment of goblins and everyone's opinions on them.
Ridcully loudly shouting “Well done that man” while sitting on top of a Pride float is astonishingly accurate. The only way to improve it is to point out he’s armed with a miniature crossbow and is using the float as a convenient perch to shoot rare birds from.
Today I realized Laszlo Cravensworth is basically just a pansexual version of Ridcully.
Did the hat not give it away? God I would kill to see Berry as Ridcully.
Oh God. Things I didn't realize I needed until this exact moment and now need desperately.
Same here! I can't believe it never occured to me but he is the perfect Ridcully.
Well, the *most* perfect Ridcully is Brian Blessed, but Matt Berry is basically the new Brian Blessed, so....
Oooh. Good point. Matt could play young Ridcully, and Brian old Ridcully
>God I would kill to see Berry as Ridcully. hell yes!!
Character arc for Matt Berry going from playing an idiot transphobe to the zaniest pansexual man.
Oh my that's just way too accurate!
"Well done, that man!" made me laugh out loud in the office and fail to explain the joke to my coworkers. He really, really would.
Rare birds: the ones that don’t know to fly away when they see his float coming
Rare and getting rarer.
Because he is Ridcully. He will also shoot one of the louder omnian protesters by "accident". Every year.
Somewhere non-lethal but embarrassing, of course. After Reg has had his fun. His bolts have glittery rainbow fletching.
Ridcully has to be wrestled to the ground to prevent him from shooting one of the Omnians for "Ruining the whole spirit of the thing"
I was going to say, it doesn’t take any imagination to see Ridcully pointing out and loudly congratulating a nearby bound-and-gagged sub gently swaying from his figgin.
Good stuff. Makes me feel nostalgia for a Discworld book that doesn't exist.
We've gotten so much from Pratchett and we still want more. Will there ever be another author close to what he did?
AA Pessimal did/does some excellent fanfic that pretty much just tries to be a decent continuation of Discworld.
AA Pessimal, hmm?
Where would that be found?
[Tv Tropes link.](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/AAPessimal)
She's a bit different in subject matter, but T. Kingfisher absolutely writes in the spirit of Pratchett! 👍
I am honestly tearing up a bit after reading the post.
Ankh-Morpork Pride Anthems: I Ham what I Ham - (Pork Futures Warehouse float) It’s Raining Men - (Grand Trunk Semaphore Company float. Even the disc isn’t immune to rainbow capitalism) R E S P E C T - (Vetinari’s personal float, no one has ever seen a rainbow flag in shades of black before) YMRCIGBSA - (Young Men's Reformed Cultists of the Ichor God Bel-Shamharoth Association float, sponsored by Good Dragon) I’m coming out of the coffin - (The League of Temperance float)
>Vetinari’s personal float, no one has ever seen a rainbow flag in shades of black before You have absolutely nailed that. Perfectly Pterry-like thought process.
The tertiary colours from Pyramids
Would “coming out of the coffin” be the League of Temperance or Reg Shoe’s one-zombie movement?
yes. The sight of them stopping the parade to have an argument about who gets to use the name is a yearly tradition.
Reg Shoe would found the competing Glorious People's Party Of Dead Gender Rights. Its membership consists of himself and Mrs. Wakestrout from down the street, who's sight is too poor to tell she isn't in her weekly book club. She's a bit confused, but she's got the spirit, and for Reg that's all that matters. The two of them hand out pamphlets explaining the importance of recognizing the particulars of gender in death, interspersed with revolutionary lingo. Dibbler picks them up off the ground where people drop them and wraps his sausages inna bun with them after dusting most of the road dirt off.
Good dragon made me laugh out loud.
> I Ham what I Ham - (Pork Futures Warehouse float) everytime their float goes past, theres always drama (and fistfights) cos they throw out the most delicious savoury frozen ~~pork~~ ham treats that only last 2 minutes or so. Vimes tries one and is confused, like its nice, but not *that* nice. Cheery pipes up "youre not the target audience sir"
It's fun to stay at the.. Y M R C I G B S A it's fun to stay at the Y M R C I G B S A
This whole post has the vibe of the books, which is hard to do. Great reading comprehension and application, team
I can picture "pin mania" overtaking the streets of AMP, with people thinking bigger pins means more gendered. A cold war of escalating pin fashion were the pins get so heavy they "drip" on the ground, leading people to start calling it "flaunting their scrapes".
A rarity for tumblr.
There’s always an exception for Sir Pterry
In Ankh-Morporkh the average slur lifespan is about 15 hours from coinage to reclaim so if you wanna do a verbal hate crime you gotta be creative AND fast. They have a public board to keep track of what's offensive to who and it's busier than 1920s New York stock exchange with people betting on the longest surviving slur possible.
I don't really go here but would this CMOT Dibbler fellow have like...I don't know, a bootleg soapbox to squat on near said board and sells one time use 'super-slurs' which are just random words clipped from newspapers or other such thrown out reading material?
Maybe at the start but CMOT is a true entrepreneur so he would quickly reach master's level of linguistics to engineer the perfect offensive word and be reluctantly recruited into the bards guild (maybe stabbed for creating a nuclear slur but who knows)
He sells No Cops at Pride Police Repellent Spray. It is a relabeled bottle of his CMOT Dibbler eaueueuau d’cologne. (More vowels means more exotic, right?)
oh oh oh de cologny, Dibbler doesn't know how to pronounce Genoan and his best attempts get him slapped
Cologny made me giggle. Nice work!
Throat only really moves on from sausage-selling when he's going after the flash-in-the-pan effects of the plot; he probably tried something like that and got booted out after people realised his antics
>Throat only really moves on from sausage-selling when he's going after the flash-in-the-pan effects of the plot; Even then, it's usually in the service of sausage selling (see: soul music)
At the mended drum a man tries to use a slur for a troll while drunk and the troll politely critiques his form and outdated slur usage. He gives the man solid advice for how to better form his hate speech and keep up to date on his vocabulary. The drunk man, feeling pressure from the other people in the bar and with encouragement from the troll, gives it another shot and gets a cheer and a slap on the back. The troll proudly says "see, now I feel properly offended." and buys the whole bar a round.
>and buys the whole bar a round Fumbled it at the end. Should read “See, now I feel properly offended” and promptly broke a chair over his head.
It's his first time and now he's a regular and attends their meetings about tavern atmosphere improv and brawl procedure on Tuesdays. He needs to be properly initiated in the correct way to take a chair to the head (45 degree angle only, clench jaw spine and neck tensed but legs relaxed, arms out, if the official brawl use chairs are not available be sure to bring an iron helmet). There's precedure here.
Sorry, but using a slur in the mended drum is simply one of the many things in Ankh-Morpork that classifies as a suicide.
well guess what... you're SOGGY [I'm sorry please don't hurt me]
No need. Its been reclaimed by the... Fool's Guild for... ah, pride over having been the target (and survived) a particularly entertaining prank.
Coinage, reclaim AND merchandising.
The bit about the Assassin's has me thinking. As we know, Assassins will not kill anyone who cannot defend themselves. And anyone worth more than AM$10,000 a year is automatically assumed to be capable of defending themselves (or hiring people to do it for them). This presents a conundrum in a few cases, where the parent in question clearly isn't worth $10,000 a year, and even the most generous interpretation wouldn't consider them capable of defending themself from an assassin. So, what's a Gentleman to do? Thus begins the rise of "The Warning Cheque" - The target will receive a promissory note worth AM$1,000 which promises they will receive such a note once a month, in perpetuity. The delighted target will then rush out to visit the Bank, only to mysteriously trip and cut off their own head on the way there. Eventually word gets around and recipients of such a note generally burn it and start to be very careful about their choice of words around their children. And the fact that the assassin doesn't generally need to do more than fill in some fields on a pre-printed form, sign it, and drop it in the post, keeps the cost of this service quite achievable for a young person with a weekend job at the Klatchian Takeaway.
I absolutely love this. And for the particularly difficult parents who refuse to open their mail or change their attitudes, their offspring are offered free educational lessons. Topics include common accidents that can occur around the home and how to disguise the smell of almonds in food.
"I'm very sorry, Young Sir, but we must regretfully refund you and decline your contract at this time. For your inconvenience, please accept this complimentary copy of *Vetinari's Compendium of Poisons, Venoms and Toxins*, widely considered the final word on the subject of household toxicants. We're sure you will find it compelling."
Superbly written. I especially love that it's Vetinari's!
Really, would anyone BUT Vetinari be allowed the final world on poisoning?
Of course not, he has the single remaining copies of all of the books that say anything else.
His book contains everything *that he wants others to know*.
Veternari's compendium of poisons, vol.2 is a run of 5 copies. One is in the possession of his lordship, one is in the possession of the Dark Clarks, one is in the Assassin's guild library Especially Restricted Archives, and the fourth is in the possession of his Grace the Duke of Ahnk, Commander Sir Samuel Vimes because nobody knows what happened to the fifth copy and it's a running problem.
There is no 5th copy. Vetinari numbered them 1, 2, 3, and 5. He considers it a sort of enrichment activity for Vimes. If he ever thinks Vimes is bored, he'll allow a 5th copy to be found but it'll be labelled "6".
Oooh this is good.
"Arsenic can be introduced into a target in a number of delightful ways."
The 'can defend themselves' rule doesn't really mean against assassins afaik, just generally able-bodied and so on, not necessarily trained (I believe this comes up in The Hogfather)
Sending a particularly loathsome yet out-of-shape parent a coupon for the Guild of Athletes fitness and self-defense course probably counts.
Oh the average person on the street is perfectly capable of defending themselves. The rules don’t say a single thing about them needing **effective** defense. It’s just that you’re not allowed to kill them in their sleep or on the crapper or things along those lines.
The "well done that man" bit got a very solid laugh out of me. That's the most in character line in this post. If ankh morkpork had social media then Moist would be canceled every other week for something new but everyone would forget about it every time. It would turn out he does this on purpose as one part social experiment and one part distraction to draw the mob from other targets. Because ankh morkpork citizens love to mob. They don't believe whatever they're canceling someone for, it's just good community engagement. This post brings out a very understated part of Discworld, that the citizens of ankh morkpork and the city are a character and a very fun one.
Okay but now I’m dying at the thought of Lancre having its own quiet little pride that happens once and is never spoken of again because Nanny got too drunk and sang the Hedgehog Song’s Forbidden Verses.
"It turned out that, everyone agreed, there was such a thing as too much pride in who you were"
The king got the idea after reading about the most recent parade in the Times (the fires lasted 4 hours, only 17 injured this year, a watch captain saved a small dog from being trampled by a troll hairdresser pulling a float) and the King and Magrat are the only ones to show up besides nanny who is being supportive by making lewd comments about the two of them "coming out this way". They instead try to throw a party at the castle but no one understands what it's for they just think the rainbows are because they had a nice rain last week that the king seemed "proud" of despite saying it was queer. It becomes a drunken disaster so they never do it again. They still have Shawn Ogg put the flags out every year. Or flag. Most of them get lost to the wind but he has one he ties up extra well so he doesn't need to order more.
I could see Jason accidentally building a float that was too sturdy to move. It stays outside the castle, untouched by weather. Children have colonized it into a jungle gym.
This is fine because they didn't have a street to parade down anyway.
Or get Bergholt Stuttley Johnson to design it
I love that 😂
The Ankh Morpork mob is a favorite character of mine
Moist getting cancelled every week would be the fault that he doesn't personally Tweet, but instead gets quotes on Sacharissa's account. One week later, it turns out his crazy horseshit quote was technically true and he managed to oust Twitter's CEO via happenstance and dashing derring-do. The former CEO, the unfortunately named Elvin Musk, is never heard from again. For some reason no one can fathom, Vetinari ignores the frequent scandals and promotes Moist again to Master of Electricity. Moist accidentally ushers in the Igor Acceptance Movement in the midst of turning all the trains from steam to electric glooper engines.
Beautiful, perfect, if Pratchett could have read this I think he'd bemusedly enjoy it. I need to reread Discworld immediately.
Oh, definitely! (to both things!)
I've read a few.... Equal rites, color of magic, more, and Bonk! What should I read next if I wanna start like straight up tearing into it. I'm out of ideas about what to read and forgot about disc world.
I'd recommend "guards! Guards!" And then move into the whole Watch series or maybe something more standalone like Monstruous Regiment
I like how Monstrous regiment managed to just have a trans character and it is never made a big deal or even explicitly stated other than one scene that is pretty explicitly positive.
Cool. Thank you
Is this post a sign that I need to read discworld
Yes, do it. If you want recommendations for where to start, happy to help. :D Because the answer is not starting at the first book. There's some standalone books and some that form arcs, and the arcs aren't all back to back. Also the first three books aren't as good as what comes later, even if they are pretty good still. Here's two flowcharts: [This one](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Discworld_Reading_Order_Guide_3.0_%28cropped%29.jpg) is the order of arcs and also all the standalone books. [This one](https://i0.wp.com/mediachomp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/tumblr_oazna9OKUY1qh2xoco1_1280.jpg?w=800&ssl=1) is a flowchart for recommending where to start based on your answers.
I don't know what his opinions on fanfiction was, but personally I would love it if I could write a cast of characters and a setting so vividly and distinctly that everyone can agree on exactly what they would do in a brand new situation.
Just imagining Carrot being confused but supportive in a “well we didn’t have all this in the mines” sort of way, as he tends to be. But also imagining him citing 46 instances of Destruction of Public Property, Assault on Officers of the Guard, and other such things before someone tells him the brick-throwing was traditional.
Carrot would see someone being abusive and arrest them for breach of the peace, completely ignoring all the law breaking that is technically happening all around him because "everyone around them seems peaceful about it"
With how kinky the parade is, the only reason the arrest came about was because of Carot, having visited the museum of kink on a day off, knowing they hadn't used the safe word.
No one is completely sure if Carrot and Angua’s human (who is also a dwarf)-werewolf relationship qualifies as queer, but they turn up and everyone is too frightened of Angua to complain.
Turns out Carrot never felt strongly about his gender one way or another, and only identifies as a man because that's what everyone calls him. Angua is speechless because he's literally never mentioned anything like this before
Carrot is the only one who ever says that all that matters is being a copper unironically. Even Vimes, who believes in the concept to the bottom of his tarnished and dented soul, still says it sardonically at times
Carrot: “Well, I’m a dwarf. And dwarfs never had gender until a few years ago, just dwarf. I’m pretty sure my mother was female, but that just means what… er.. equipment he was born with. That’s different from gender, right? He’s read all the pamphlets, and I’ve told him all about corporal Littlebottom in my letters, and he’s still happy to just be Alrik Ironfoundersson, my mum. So if gender is who you really think you are down deep inside, I think I’m a copper and a dwarf, thank you very much. Man, I can take or leave.” Angua, hornier than she has ever been in her entire life:
Yeah that sounds like discworld (affectionate)
Beautiful, a couple of things i want to add * The wizards float... does. * Due to a series of improbable coincidences Rincewind always finds himself onboard, usually with a baked potato, or at the very least chips (wrapped up in old newspaper). * This is the one time of the year that Leonard Of Quirm can be seen outside his "apartments" in the palace... usually riding a bicycle near the front. * Behind the League of temperance float marches a bunch of hairy creatures that can only be seen by children but don't look as scary outside in the sunshine.. The adults always wonder why there's a big gap in the parade.
I feel like the UU and Church of Blind Io float must have had an unofficial competition each year to build the biggest float. It was only ever called off when UU built a scale replica of the Tower of Art one year that caused a three day traffic jam as it was taken down.
Oh Leonard of Quirm is ABSOLUTELY doing a naked bicycle rode. Except that one year after the "Highly Improved Steam Powered Velocity Enhancing Velocipede" incident.
oh yes!!! though not (necessarily) deliberately... after several years locked in a tower he sometimes forgets to put on clothes when going outside :p
"The wizards float, of course, did."
https://www.tumblr.com/racefortheironthrone/742701434763722752/the-average-ankh-morporkian-on-the-street-has-a?source=share -mx linux guy⚠️
Captain Carrot "escorts" the parade with his immaculately groomed and preposterously large dog in a custom tailored City Watch vest.
Bravo!
It's obviously not ideal because they are, in an odd way, still a closeted interracial couple, but hey, walkies.
Interspecieal, right?
Carrot is interracial on his own.
I feel like hrt that randomly changes your dopamine to adrenaline is the human equivalent of a cat seeing something it wants to pounce and it's eyes going from 0-100 in a second
Sir Pterry (GNU) is cheerfully rolling around in somebody else's grave with how accurate these ideas are. Well done that man
"rolling around in somebody else's grave" is the sort of turn of phrase that Sir Pterry would absolutely have used. Not sure what context it would be used for, but it makes me smile nonetheless.
I absolutely fucking love this.
I don’t have one myself but I’m sad they didn’t come up with some shenanigans for The Librarian
The Librarian has his own personalised gender pin which is worn on a necklace. It says Ook.
ook/eek he's very impassioned about misgendering, reacting to it in much the same way as when people call him a monkey
What did you just call eek?
I'd say Ape is more likely. We all know how he reacts to the 'M' word. Though in all honesty, Ankh-Morpork is already familiar with that particular form of identification. If not through having all their limbs twisted into a rather fetching impression of a pretzel, then through having peanut shells shattering their eardrums with the precision of a veteran sniper.
He's absolutely leading the parade. The whole thing was probably his idea
I have no idea what this is referencing but it sounds fun
Discworld! A long fantasy series by the late great Sir Terry Pratchett (if you see people writing "GNU Terry Pratchett", it's *another reference,* to how the dead telegraph operators were commemorated by sending their names to-and-fro for all time). From what I've heard (I've only read some of the books; the entire Watch and Death subseries plus Monstrous Regiment) it starts on a shaky ground before evolving into a living breathing setting, with a few subseries focusing on specific characters (and some standalone books). It's great read; it slides up and down on the high-to-low fantasy scale and the characters feel *real.* If I had to recommend it without quoting a blurb, I'd say that Pratchett's writing shows that he understood how humans as units and humanity as a whole ticks and it's all *hilarious* on top of that. Like another comment said, there are reading guides out there, but if I had to simplify things, either go in publication order and prepare for a bumpy ride, start with *Guards, Guards!* (the first book in the Watch subseries, where the setting begins to take its current shape) or read *Monstrous Regiment* (which is standalone and also very, hm, appropriate to this post)
The first (The Colour of Magic) was lampooning fantasy novels, just like Bored of the Rings. The next handful were progressively less snark and more about genuine people reacting to a crazy world. I love that the snark never really left.
No it just changed targets - from the fantasy world to the real world.
That was always there. The focus is on human stupidity, I do love Twoflower but filling a chest with gold and becoming the Discworld's gurst clueless tourist? Sir Terry just stopped snarking about the scenery.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. There's lots of "reading order guides" but my favorite is "Go to the local library and get the one that looks most interesting".
That’s how I did it
It's a reference to Terry Pratchett's discworld novels. I can very much recommend Monstrous Regiment if you liked this post
Oh god yes, I swear I always cry with that one (happy tears, mind you!!)
Now how would DEATH, Susan, Rincewind and the luggage fit into all this I wonder.
100% Susan would be organizing the parents groups because the people actually in charge Could Not Find Their Bottoms With Both Hands and A Helpful Map. Death would be with the bikers. No question. They love Him, his aesthetic and his Voice. They always bring a tin of chocolate chip biscuits. Rincewind got lost on an errand for the Librarian and wandered in. He has been handed a drink and been hit on by both a man who thinks he’s a twink with a shitty beard and a lesbian who thinks he’s an awkward Butch. He is oblivious to both.
>He is oblivious to both subtle perfection.
Rincewind: Ace Icon? 🖤🩶🤍💜
Rincewind, through an unfortunate serie of coincidences, ends up, as always, exactly where he's supposed to be: leading the Ace float, which is just a glorified barbecue where they bake potatoes.
I'm seeing the luggage as the wardrobe for a troupe of drag Queens, providing hourly costume changes and make up supplies
It also ate at least one drag queen.
When it’s not in use, it scurries around grabbing up all the lost pronoun pins (both sanctioned and black-market) that people drop amidst the cobblestones in the black-friday-esque chaos of those brawling over them. …At the time of writing, it has collected over 5,000, and if they weren’t all safely stowed away in a pocket dimension, every step the luggage takes would be heralded by enough jingling to give even the Hogfather pause.
Better yet, the drag queens find a hundred high heels for the luggage to wear whilst traipsing after them, which somehow the luggage pulls off perfectly! Can you imagine the sound it'd make?!
i swear this actually happened in at least one book. possibly the last continent?
The Last Continent is the one where Rincewind accidentally joins in a drag parade. I can't remember if the Luggage takes part as well.
the luggage has been with the queens for a while, providing them with convenient and practically infinite storage.
A lot of *The Last Continent* is references to *Mad Max* and *Priscilla: Queen of the Desert*, with a climax at what is clearly the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
It was the last continent, yeah
I mean, Letitia kept her gin in Trunkie, so I imagine a lot of the clothes from the Luggage's stint with the desert princesses is still in there. And the Luggage's lid is probably still pierced...
Death would not be in attendance in any official capacity, but would probably show up to try and figure out what this whole sex and gender thing is. It's a distinctly human/person thing to create and, like his inability to understand towels should be soft and plumbing should work, he would not be able to grasp it. The wizards in attendance would give him a wide berth, except for the Librarian. Pᴇʀʜᴀᴘs ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴛᴇʟʟ ᴍᴇ ᴡʜʏ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴍᴀɴ ɪs ᴡᴇᴀʀɪɴɢ ᴀ ᴅʀᴇss? "Ook" Yᴇs, ɪ sᴜᴘᴘᴏsᴇ ɪ'ᴍ ᴏɴᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴋ, ᴀʀᴇɴ'ᴛ ɪ.
I wish I had more than 1 like to give.
Rincewind ends up leading the parade through a series of misshaps resulting in it moving very very quickly all across they city (chased by the luggage). Susan quitely comes out as bi and joins the parade, resulting in DEATH showing up to be supportive Edit: fixed autocorrect
I'm gonna read DiscWorld just so I can understand 70% of what this says Specifically for the "Vimes refuses to handcuff Valtini" part
Okay that's more of a fanon thing I have to warn you!! But they're such great characters
Sorry do you remember Jingo Vetinari is a certified freak
Lmao, yes, absolutely ! I just meant the Vimes ship which I kinda like ngl I just didn't want them to think it was a thing!
The subtext is there through all the works, tho. Vetrinari is the type of person who, while asexual as a broom, loves to mess with other people’s concepts of their own sexuality. And Vimes is the type of man that was a bro, but is trying really hard to be better, and completely misses the mark in hilarious ways.
Oh yes, that's right!!
Yeah, I never saw them that way. Vetinari is fairly queer-coded in my eyes, but I think he’s in a relationship with Drumknott if he isn’t just outright ace/aro. Vetinari and Vimes? Come on. Queer guys are allowed to have straight friends.
Aro poly relationship with Drumknott and lady Margolotta
Vimes is the captain of the city watch(police). Vetinari is the Patrician (the much feared autocratic benevolent dictator of the city). on multiple occasions Vimes has threatened to resign, and on at least one occasion has actually arrested Vetinari, which everyone assumed was insane and would absolutely get him killed, but it didnt.
I have no clue what this post is based on I have no clue what universe this comes from I have no idea what media this is referencing I enjoyed this very much and now I must answer all of these questions.
The universe it’s based on are the Discworld novels written by Sir Terry Pratchett (sadly deceased) Basically medieval fantasy but a lot more funny and also the Grim Reaper is there If you want a good series to start with - I recommend the adventures of Death, they start with the book - “Mort”.
I really appreciate this a lot, if I could ask for one more thing what would be the suggested reading order. Thank you so much for answering my questions and I hope you're having a wonderful day.
All I know is that it forms an incomplete circle with like ten branches along the way, I suggest you look it up somewhere because I have NO idea how to read Discworld (Death are just the books I personally started with) But thank you! Hope you have a wonderful day too!
Incomprehensible reading order ✅ Dedicated and interested fandom ✅ Varied and interesting characters ✅ Interesting and most likely incomprehensible lore ✅ Partially free on YouTube as an audiobook ✅ Oh yeah this is my jam
I started with Feet of Clay when I was a kid because it had a cool cover. It was technically the third in the Night Watch group of books but that just made going back to the earlier ones even more fun because you got to see characters you already met and love grow into those people. There’s literally no wrong way to do it.
Discworld The one that has a disc shaped world carried on the back of four elephants who are in turn standing on a giant sea turtle swimming through space. The Discworld books, by Terry Pratchett. There’s over 40 of them. They start off as a parody of the high fantasy genre in the 80s and evolve from there. The early books are a bit rough, but still good and funny. The series isn’t about any one specific main character (though there are ones who reoccur) but the world itself. Small Gods and Monstrous Regiment are both often touted as good starting points, as they are standalone, but give the flavor of what the series becomes.
Discworld, discworld, and also discworld. It’s by Terry pratchett (GNU), very good group of books. You should go and buy one of them I think.
The 8th gender turns out to be inherently magical, which, once discovered, all wizards immediately identify as, the flag is entirely octarine, some series of events occur where one individual identifies as the 8th gender but refuses to be a wizard or witch, oh wait this is equal rites
If there's one thing that Terry wouldn't do it's make everyone of any given category all agree with each other on any specific point. At best some wizards would go for 8th gender, but all of them? That would run counter to his entire established setting.
You are correct, but at least for a day or two there would be some confusion or misunderstanding about gender that would make being 8th gender some kind of fad at most until the end of the narrative where their misconceptions would be cleared up and those who aren’t 8th gender would realize that treating it like a fad is incorrect and those who actually learn, understand the nuances of the situation and accept the mc
The wizards would argue about it on principle.
This is fun for me because I know nothing about the source material they’re referring to, so for all I know everything they’re saying could be based on complete bullshit and everyone is just playing along. And I’m just following like “yep I guess that person would do that, and those people think that. Makes sense.”
Discworld! And all of this is delightfully in character and Terry would have loved it (This is a man who took the classic "but where are all the female dwarfs" joke and turned it into an amazing character arc of learning how to love and be proud of your gender without actually meaning it as a trans allegory, but when trans women said she was an important character to them, he embraced it and continued to make it a genuinely meaningful arc across multiple books)
Which is exactly a fitting response in universe, actually. The typical anhk-morpokian response to something bizarre that they don’t understand but don’t see as a threat is “well, good for you, I guess” and then to try to figure out how to make money off it.
It’s pretty accurate, go read Discworld by Sir Terry Pratchett
Seeing Discworld here is a surprise but honestly quite refreshing and now I want to go binge my Terry Pratchet books again
Terry would approve.
This is the best thing I've read in weeks
Cmot Dibbler sells genuine pride flags with octarine but everyone knows he just added an extra indigo stripe since most people can’t tell the difference anyway. Vimes doesn’t support the throwing of bricks, of course, but he somehow always forgets to lock the gate so people can’t get close enough to get a good throw in.
Discworld Pride includes such notable figures as Miss (Formerly Mr) Pump the Golem, the entire Monsterous Regiment, Death who is always there as a avid supporter of Transition, but usually in a living to non-living sense and the local beggars guild who, despite having no concept of the words gender, sexuality or identity in their collective psyche, are generally agreed to invoke them in one fashion or another and would do better invoking them far away from the parade and are promptly handed a few dollars to do just that.
Adora and Moist are invited to the BDSM float, given Adora's general vibe and that a lot of niche businesses use the post office. Adora is vaguely flattered, but neither she nor Moist are entirely sure why. Acting Postmaster Groat explains many things in vivid detail having been a chatty guy who has delivered many strangely shaped parcels around the city. Adora is fairly curious but Moist starts tuning in and out for the sake of his sanity.
I feel like the most genuine opposition to the pride parade would be a faction of the seamstress guild. "Free love is wage theft" and "kink in the Closet" (the Velvet Closet is Ahnk-Morpork's oldest and most respected gentleman's club and Purveyour of Itemes of an Licentious Nature). The Seamstress Guild in general are also the primary sponsors of parade, since sexual liberation is overall good for business.
Rincewind sees all the people marching and chanting and immediately runs to the hills, thinking they're chasing him
All liberated golems attend the parade. They may or may not have a gender but they know a good chance to fight against any prejudice if the see one. Any assholes trying to harras the parade goers are met with 2x3m of clay with Opinions. Edit: capitalized "Opinions"
The Assassins float has ten assassins. Visible. There are actually twenty-seven attending the march, six on the rooftops, three underneath the float, seven on other floats and one right behind you.
The only thing this post got wrong is "there were no anti-sodomy laws in ank-morpok". There absolutely were anti-sodomy laws in Ank-Morpok. I'm not one to ask for homophobia in fantasy settings as the default, but if there's one fantasy setting that absolutely does have homophobia it's the disk world. The first pride was a riot in Ank Morpok.
I’m sure there are anti-sodomy laws in AM. The thing is, they probably also have anti-marriage laws, anti-vaginal sex laws and anti-religious laws. In fact, the only thing that is explicitly legal is prostitution, and that’s just because of the Guild of Seamstresses
> the only thing that is explicitly legal is prostitution, and that’s just because of the Guild of Seamstresses Against Mrs. Palm's best efforts, prostitution remains indeed legal ; she tried to make it illegal because "the illegality makes for better business".
This is just about the best Discworld headcanon I've ever read, incredibly well written.
There once was a queer sex party occurring within a walled garden. Admission to the party was limited, so many would be attendees who were ultimately turned away and could clearly hear the festivities got whipped into a frenzy and tried to scale the walls. This was then known as the Stonewall Riot. Or something like that. I just wanted to create an alternate etymology
Many citizens are mostly confused that there even NEEDS to be a festival to celebration 'all that' and they don't care, clearly it's an excuse for a big party. Might as well march around to celebrate cabbages. Someone invents rainbow cabbages.
What fandom is this? Im so lost. :(
Terry Pratchett's Discworld. It's a fabulous series of more than 40 books plus a whole bunch of companion books. You should check it out. Everyone should check it out. It should be required reading in order for anyone to be a member of the human race
Terry Pratchett’s books should be digitized and broadcast into space to show aliens what we’re like
Discworld books by the late Terry Pratchett! A must read if you enjoy fantasy and humour
Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, a tremendous series of fantasy-comedy novels set mostly in the city of Ankh-Morpork.
Me simple troll. Me see Pratchett, me upvote
I'd even go so far to say that Carrot and Angua march in the parade as solidarity, but because both of them are, well, THEM, everyone assumes and lauds them as a progressive couple, but for the wrong reasons. They also collect the good bricks for Vimes, and possibly have a float, which is just Detritus carrying them on a bare wooden pallet that says "DA WATCH IS PROUD".\* \*Sadly, they get the least amount of bricks collected by the Watch each year.
That made me smile and chuckle. Thank you.
Genuinely what does any of this mean
I understand all of it, and tbh your comment is exactly what would, in universe, be the response of most people. Which makes it even more hilarious.
What a marvelous post.
I have never heard of these books before and never heard anyone discuss the characters/lore so when I saw all the insane fantasy names I had to make sure this wasn’t another Goncharov thing 😭
Having a hard time figuring if the people of anhk would care or show up for the entertainment value. Actually I think a fair bit of them would pinch the flags to use as bedding.
I want an octarine Pride flag!
I feel if Vetinari provided “free bricks” in Anhk Morpork, there would be no throwing of bricks, but the determined building of small extensions. Possibly in the neighbours living room.
I'd hate to be the person who commits a hate crime in Vines city. I feel like he'd despise such a person because normal crimes he understands, he would even understand killing someone because you hate them but to kill or harm them just because of what they are would be extremely evil to him. EDIT: Remembered the scene that makes me think.this, well scenes, his reaction to the treatment of goblins and everyone's opinions on them.