#discposting

[old-stoneface]

carrot ironfoundersson you wouldve loved the tv show how it's made

[ghastmaskzombie]

mort was basically exactly an isekai if you think about it. just a teenage boy with no noteworthy skills dying and going to another- no wait, correction, going to another world and then becoming death (close enough), where a tsundere falls in love with him and it takes him the whole book to notice.

[bees-with-swords]

Thank you to all my non-discworld followers for bearing with the discposting today. Love u and wish you a very good 'go read Going Postal'

[edgelordteach]

So, I’ve been thinking about the what makes the Vimes and Vetinari dynamic so fun to to read and I think a big part of it is the idea of Vimes and Vetinari having a serious conflict. In the earlier watch books especially it really feels like they are always on the verge of being proper enemies.the spark could really be anything; maybe Vimes doesn’t agree with something that Vetinari’s doing or Vetinari tries to get Vimes to do something he really doesn’t want to do, there is a potential for a situation where for some reason or another one of them thinks the other needs to be stopped.

Vimes would prevail. Against all odds he would be able to win because he’s Vimes and overcoming impossible odds is one of his things. He would because it’s baked into his character, it’s implied that he could easily follow in old stoneface’s footsteps, even if he doesn’t particularly want to. He would also win because the narrative demands it. He’s the protagonist and if he decided that Vetinari was his enemy that would make Vetinari the antagonist. And we know what happens to antagonists.

Which is partially why this never happens. It’s predictable, it’s sort of what the reader is expecting; on first glance Vetinari is very much a stock villain, an evil, cunning tyrant who often stands in the way (especially in the first two books) of our protagonist doing what he wants. Going into the series I certainly expected the other shoe to drop, I thought Vetinari was eventually going to be a baddie.

Terry Pratchett didn’t do this because he was a satirist and the entire series was based on brilliantly subverting fantasy tropes, but I also think that one of the in-universe reasons why this doesn’t happen is because Vetinari learns very quickly that Vimes (and also Carrot, but that’s another topic) could and would take him down if needed. So Vetinari, knowing that he couldn’t beat Vimes does the very Vetinari thing of adopting Vimes into his own arsenal. They’re on the same side yet still there’s this current of tension because of the traditional roles their inhabiting. Everything feels a bit skewed because instead of fighting against Vetinari, Vimes is working with him. And it’s great! Because of the uncertainty, the suspense, the expectation of this dynamic to transform into what it’s supposed to be according to the conventions of the genre. It makes for a such an exciting read!

In conclusion: Terry Pratchett was an amazing writer who’s manipulation of the fantasy genre was just brilliant. Miss you, King.

[datsderbunnyblog]

— Jingo, Terry Pratchett

Translation: "Good evening, Sir Samuel, and may I say how submissive and breedable you're looking."

[bookshelfpassageway]

mylongestyeahboyever.meme

[huntypastellance]

https://www.change.org/p/dreamworks-dreamworks-give-the-voltron-writers-the-green-light-give-us-lgbt-representation

There aren’t even enough words to describe how stupid this is......

This is actually even STUPIDER than the “GIVE US THE PALADINS’ AGES YOU COWARDS” petition. But even that one didn’t get SEVENTEEN THOUSAND votes on it!!!!

[calamitys-child]

While I'm Discposting I really just want to take a minute to think about the first trans women in the Cheesemongers, post-novel

[rem-ir]

hey manny!!! i adore your blog and your discposting has gotten me super interested in the series. i'm not sure if you've already made a post about it, but do you have a recommendation for a starting point? (little note that from yr posts and the excerpts i've read that Vetinari seems like My Type of antagonist boy and i'd love to read abt him, if that makes any difference hahah). i hope you have a great day

hi anon! hope you have a great day too! I don’t think I’ve ever made a post about where to start, but I find with discworld you can start very nearly anywhere. The plots tend to be self-contained, and you generally don’t need to have read the rest of the books to get them. I personally started with The Truth, which is about the invention of the printing press and investigative journalism. There’s also a talking dog. Going Postal is also a good one to start with (Moist von Lipwig is in this one), as are Monstrous Regiment (if I cross-dressed to join the army and YOU cross-dressed to join the army, then who’s driving the car?) and Small Gods (a wrathful god learns better). Both of the latter are stand-alones. 

If you’re after Vetinari Content, I’d recommend the city watch books. There’s eight of them, starting with Guards! Guards!. I’ll note that he’s not quite an antagonist. He’s more of an “on the same side as but occasionally an annoyance to the protagonist”-agonist. He dresses up as a street entertainer and juggles in Jingo. 

And if you think you’d like Vetinari, you might also like Granny Weatherwax– they’re cut from a similar cloth. She appears in the Witches series and in the Tiffany Aching series. Don’t discount the Tiffany books because they’re aimed at younger readers. I really liked the Tiffany books. And I read the Witches books rather out of order, so you can do the same. 

Hope this helps and have fun!

[old-stoneface]

(feet of clay)

(going postal)

[old-stoneface]

vimes buying a pizza for vetinari in feet of clay makes me laugh so hard . he just went and picked that up like "this cannot possibly be poisoned so its safe to eat" and vetinari reacted like hes never seen a pizza before in his whole life. the man is from genua, fantasy italy, and hes never seen a pizza before? good gods. and then vetinari picked at it and ate the parts he liked and then put it down

[old-stoneface]

honestly its so crazy thinking about vimes and vetinari existing in settings outside of discworld. i just dont think AUs are really possible...not even like little "vacation" aus where theyre at the beach or something. i just tried imagining vimes in swim trunks at the beach and i couldnt do it. he wouldnt even get in the water he would fall asleep on a towel and be really grumpy when hes woken up. and he would get sunburnt because he refuses to let anyone help him with sunscreen . nothing about it would be fun or cute for him

[old-stoneface]

its so nuts what feet of clay says about every single character . like. its a cycle of asking who is the master of whom and wondering what kind of power people have over each other. we get that constant motif of the idea that one person has influenced another so much theyve turned into something else. dorfl being influenced by carrot being influenced by vimes being influenced by vetinari. and vetinari is where it stops . hes being influenced by his experience with the world and he funnels that knowledge of how things operate into vimes and vimes has no idea how much vetinari is really effecting him. my god

[old-stoneface]

uh. can i say something

[old-stoneface]

in later books its like clear that vetvimes is at a comfortable point like they arent really butting heads quite as much anymore, and vimes is just nastily loyal while vetinari dotes on his guard dog, but earlier books - the ones that i have become extremely obsessed with - are all about the tension. the tension. the defining feature of the tension is that its half power play and half sexual. vimes is frothing at the mouth with the promise of retaliation but he cant he cannot resist saving the patrician. he saves him all the time. he Wants to save him. and he cant figure out why. why does he save him?? vetinaris winding just works on him? sort of. yeah. it does. even when vetinari isnt aware hes doing it. vimes is pulled in so close to him while vetinari is twisting him up and wringing him out. the problem with their communication is vetinari hasnt fucking explained himself, and hes right not to, because if vimes understood vetinaris motivations then vimes wouldnt be as malleable. but vimes is angry because he doesnt understand. vetinari is inscrutable to him.

there is this constant question between vetinari and vimes of which one is the master - who is the servant of whom? you look at it surface level and think well vimes is vetinari's guard dog. but they have this mutual respect and trust that develops over a very long time. vetinari is unexpectedly emotionally affected by vimes' actions all the time, and he has no idea how to handle that, because vimes can surprise him. even after hes been patrician for so long, pulling all the strings. he sees something special in vimes, and he fosters it and feeds it and helps it grow, and then it turns around and holds vetinari in its jaws while vetinari still holds its leash - the threat of violence is there but the jaws never press down . theres never any true risk. its a game, its a dance, theyre like lovers..

vetinari doesnt see it as strictly romantic - he sees the tension as tension. he doesnt know the full extent of his power over vimes or what hes doing to him. i think vetinari has a very deep affection for vimes, but its not something that would control his response to vimes. he does let it show when hes rewarding him, though vetinari does have very good self control and discipline. vetinari engineers this tension between them, pulling vimes in very close before pushing him away (he isnt rejecting vimes. he is pushing him away), vimes gets obsessed with that feeling of danger and rebellion - the dynamic that allows them to bounce off each other and snap back like a rubber band - its easy to see how it can become something sexual for both of them. especially vimes with his addiction to danger. he isnt aware he can have those feelings. homosexuality is lost on vimes because hes spent years pushing it down and ignoring it - i personally think it was one of the reasons that he was an alcoholic - the world isnt nice to people who are different and vimes is very aware of that.

the catch and release and winding and unwinding is what gets him. its a thrill. hes addicted to the danger of vetinari, while vetinari has little regard for his feelings beyond being able to manipulate them at first. vetinari tries to keep it impersonal but he cant help it, not in feet of clay, not in jingo, and he doesnt understand himself why he has involuntary feelings of genuine concern for vimes either

[old-stoneface]

one of my other favorite things in the truth that makes it one of my favorite discworld books is the description of vimes from a new perspective

"he just seemed to generate an internal scruffiness field" aaalways makes me smile