Nanny Ogg And Moist Von Lipwig

Happy New Year, everyone!

May the Force be with you, always

Live long and prosper

May the odds be ever in your favour

Aim to misbehave

May there be good in this world that’s worth fighting

Don’t. Be. Dead

May you not live in interesting times

Don’t get in legal trouble, but if you do, better call Saul

…and so on and so forth, feel free to add :)

And from me personally: love yourself, love life, love people, and then you’ll be loved too, because I said so

You deserve happiness, don’t be afraid to pursue it, but if you are, try and "do it scared"

May 2025 be your year. Our year.

Your Jane of almost all trades

Discworld is an interesting beast in the age of ACAB. Like, the city watch books are a story about police and the way in which a good police force can help and protect people. Which would make it copoganda. And I'm not going to say that the City Watch books are completely free of copoganda, but they also do something interesting that fairly few stories about heroic police officers do, and I think it has a lot to do with Samuel Vimes. A lot of copoganda stories like, say, Brooklyn 99, are perfectly capable of portraying cops as cruel, bigoted, and greedy, but our central cast of characters are portrayed as good people who want to help their communities. The result is that the bad cops are portrayed as an aberration, while most cops can be assumed to be good people doing a tough job because they want to help protect people from the nebulous evil forces of "Crime". The police are considered to be naturally heroic. Pratchett does something very interesting, which is provide us with Vimes' perspective, and present us with an Unnaturally heroic police force. In Ahnk-Morpork, the natural state of the watch is a gang with extra paperwork. It's the place for people who, at best, just want a steady paycheck and at worst want an excuse to hit people with a truncheon. Rather than be an army defending people from the forces of Crime, the Watch is described as a sort of sleight-of-hand, big burly watchmen in shiny uniforms don't stand around in-case a Crime happens in their vicinity, they stand around to remind people that The Law exists and has teeth. The Watchmen are people, when danger rears it's head, their instinct is to hide and get out of the way. When faced with authority, their instinct is to bow to it out of fear of what it might do to them if they don't. Carrot is a genuine Hero, but his natural heroism is presented as an aberration. Normal Cops don't act like Carrot does. The fact that the Watch ends up acting like a Heroic Police Force is largely due to the leadership of Sam Vimes, but Vimes himself is a microcosm of the Watch. The base state of Sam Vimes would be an alchoholic bully of an officer, one who beats people until they confess to anything because that makes his job easier. Vimes The Hero is a homunculous, an artificial being created by Sam Vimes fighting back all those instincts and FORCING himself to behave as his conscience dictates. Vimes doesn't take bribes or let his officers do the same because, damnit, that sort of thing shouldn't happen, even if doing so would make things a lot easier. Vimes doesn't run towards sounds of screaming because he WANTS to, he forces himself to do so because somebody needs to. It's best summed up in Thud “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Your Grace.” “I know that one,” said Vimes. “Who watches the watchmen? Me, Mr. Pessimal.” “Ah, but who watches you, Your Grace?” said the inspector with a brief little smile. “I do that, too. All the time,” said Vimes. “Believe me.”

In the hands of another writer, or another series, this exchange would be weirdly dismissive. To whom should the police be accountable to? Themselves, shut up and trust us. But from Vimes, it's a different story. Vimes DOES constantly watch himself, and he doesn't trust that bastard, he's known him his entire life. The Heroic Police are not a natural state, they're an ideal, and ahnk-morpork only gets anywhere close. Vimes is constantly struggling against his own instincts to take shortcuts, to let things slide, but he forces himself to live up to that ideal and the Watch follows his example. Discworld doesn't propose any solutions to the problems with policing in the real world. We don't have a Sam Vimes to run the NYPD and force them to behave. We don't have a Carrot Ironfounderson. But it's at least a story about detectives and police that I can read without feeling like I'm being sold propaganda about the Thin Blue Line.

someone explain the jewish holidays to me like i'm 5 years old

red blood cell girl bringing you oxygen on a cute little platter and then curtseying

The outfit looks like it’s her version from Soul Music, pretty cool

Susan Sto Helit

It's Death favourite daughter and interleaver! Got around to thinking about Discworld again recently. GNU Sir Terry Pratchett!

If you like my art, give me a pat on the back by liking, and consider reblogging to bring joy to others!

My commissions are open. If you would like me to draw you something like this, feel free to contact me here on pm, via e-mail sonjavart(at)gmail.com, or on my Ko-Fi. Price listings are on my Ko-Fi, and if you don’t see what you like, feel free to inquire for a quote or other details. Relevant info and links in my pinned post.

This is exactly why I keep telling people:

Read. Terry. Pratchett. Books.

And if you already have… well, reread them after a good while to have a new understanding of them.

Reading a Terry Pratchett book is literally just: Here's a funny little joke Here's something that you can tell is a joke but don't get and will only figure out five years later Here's a surprisingly cool fantasy concept Here's a unique and well written simile Here's a lil guy Here's something that has aged depressingly well into the modern day Here's something that has aged remarkably queer into the modern day Here's a character that you can barely understand what he's saying Here is the most terrifying and deeply disturbing concept you have ever heard, casually mentioned Here is the dumbest fucking pun you've ever heard but in the best way Here is a quote so profound that it makes you view morality and the world in a different way Here is a plot twist that you can't tell if it's genius or stupid Congratulations! You've finished the book! It has fundamentally changed you as a person and you will never be the same!

And everyone who reads this, too

The person I reblogged this from deserves to be happy

I tried to scroll past this. I really did

the only reason I remember the formula for the volume of a cone is that Susan Sto Helit used it to count baby teeth in a big pile in Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather

What they can see:

What they can’t see:

me watching Narcos and making a little mental note whenever I can identify a new swear word or expression