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We live in a world where Terry Pratchett died a horrible death and the guy who wrote Ready Player One got a movie deal. EDIT: Wow, there's a cheery way to start a new page.
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Feb 4, 2018 17:35
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Gorilla Salad posted:We live in a world where Terry Pratchett died a horrible death and the guy who wrote Ready Player One got a movie deal. Hey, Pratchett lived to be 67... there's still time for calamity to befall Ernest Cline well before that age. 
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Feb 4, 2018 17:38
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Mr Rogers died too. If only the guy who wrote that book died instead we could have them back
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Feb 4, 2018 17:39
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I don't know how everyone else found it but I personally liked the idea of the Elf that was actually better than the others in the last Tiffany Aching book, who behaved largely out of a combination of fear and gratitude initially (she was found injured and powerless by the Wee Free Men after being betrayed and cast out by her own kind with some kind of iron trinket slowly killing her. The Nac Mac Feegle would have killed her in cold blood were it not for Tiffany convincing them not to) but realised having people actually like her in a genuine way was surprisingly alluring and spent a good amount of the book helping undo elven messes. I especially liked the compromise glamour - as she gets her strength back she goes to try the full Glamour on Tiffany, but Tiffany threatens her, so she kind of stops halfway, becoming more human looking although still a little too perfect and gilded to truly pass, but not enough to cause hypnotic effects. However I also liked Raising Steam, and heard a lot of complaints about that one, so grain of salt.
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Feb 4, 2018 17:44
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I'm not a big fan of Granny Weatherwax but I'll check out Lords & Ladies someday.
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Feb 4, 2018 17:47
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oldpainless posted:https://youtu.be/1C-i7J9ZLuM More like old what the gently caress is wrong with you Doctor Polaski is great and that scene is worth it for the Worf Is Funny payoff Riker's eggs look like poo poo, though
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Feb 4, 2018 17:47
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Samuringa posted:I'm not a big fan of Granny Weatherwax I'm afraid we're now forums enemies.
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Feb 4, 2018 17:49
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The Bloop posted:More like old what the gently caress is wrong with you Doctor Polaski is great and that scene is worth it for the Worf Is Funny payoff No
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Feb 4, 2018 17:49
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Actually, there should have been more slice of life poo poo like that. All we usually got was Troi eating chocolate or Beverly wearing a bathing suit backwards.
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Feb 4, 2018 17:51
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The Bloop posted:Actually, there should have been more slice of life poo poo like that. All we usually got was Troi eating chocolate or Beverly wearing a bathing suit backwards. Sounds to me like you wanted to watch a little show called Babylon 5. It had slice-of-life, and slums on a space station!
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Feb 4, 2018 17:52
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TheKennedys posted:Pratchett was ahead of his time with using the "elves only want you to think they're beautiful and good and awesome, the glamour is the whole point, they'll actually eat your face off because they're alien and wicked" approach in Lords and Ladies, and it was a great book for it. I want more Pratchett elves. Do you need to have read all 13 other Discworld books or can you just start on evil elves in Lords and Ladies? I've never read Pratchett before but have been meaning to try. Also I hate Tolkien's loving elves.
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Feb 4, 2018 18:00
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Treks got so much better after Roddenberry died.
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Feb 4, 2018 18:00
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Krispy Wafer posted:Do you need to have read all 13 other Discworld books or can you just start on evil elves in Lords and Ladies? I've never read Pratchett before but have been meaning to try. Generally the stories are able to be read seperately, but in series, for example the Watch books are best read in order, but you don't need the Witches or Moist von Lipwigs books to understand the progression although they do refer to it, for example the first Moist von Lipwig book mentions the liberation of some of the Golems which is detailed in the Watch series (I think). In your case the Witches books will help understand Granny's overall state of mind regarding Glamours in general Lords and Ladies, especially with what happens between her and her sister in Witches Abroad,(i) but as the start of the Elves arc it's not strictly necessary IIRC. (i)Basically her sister was a fairy godmother who lost her mind and started forcing fairytale endings on those that didn't want them - Granny's quest in that book is to stop Cinderella becoming betrothed to a prince she gave no shits about in an arranged marriage. And her sourness is addressed in that book's finale as she was born a Witch, and was supposed to be the darker sibling as a result. As she puts it: "After you ran off, I had to be the Good one!" Put the spoiler in a Pratchett style footnote for you 
BioEnchanted has a new favorite as of 18:08 on Feb 4, 2018 |
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Feb 4, 2018 18:02
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BioEnchanted posted:Read all of them. every single one Fixed your post.
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Feb 4, 2018 18:07
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Also, read them in English. Translations lose or break like half of the jokes and funny bits.
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Feb 4, 2018 18:16
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Krispy Wafer posted:Do you need to have read all 13 other Discworld books or can you just start on evil elves in Lords and Ladies? I've never read Pratchett before but have been meaning to try. Nah, one of the great things about Pratchett is that while there's a substantial amount of continuity throughout his books, each one is a self-contained story. There's occasional references to events and characters from previous books, but everything you'd need to understand and enjoy the story is provided on the pages you're reading. Terry Pratchett was real loving good.
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Feb 4, 2018 18:19
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Der Kyhe posted:Also, read them in English. Yeah, I think I first read a few of them in Hebrew, and didn't really get it. Then I read one in English, and got hooked for years.
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Feb 4, 2018 18:20
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Discworld Elves are kind of a very different thing from 'standard' fantasy elves, really. The more Tolkein-esque elves that briefly appear in the earliest books are handwaved later as half-breeds with delusions of grandeur.
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Feb 4, 2018 18:21
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Yeah, Discworld elves were intentionally meant to evoke the more wild Celtic mythology, with everything being pretty but likely to kill you or gently caress you over because they're the Sidhe and you're not. It's a nice change from just $recolored_tolkien_elf_3663
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Feb 4, 2018 18:25
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Inescapable Duck posted:The more Tolkein-esque elves that briefly appear in the earliest books are handwaved later as half-breeds with delusions of grandeur. I liked how they portrayed it in the Discworld Noir game. There's a character who's a half-breed who explains that he gets a lot of poo poo for looking like an elf but has none of magic capabilities that elves has.
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Feb 4, 2018 18:34
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I'd argue that Gaiman made his elves in Sandman (and then the same ones bled into other Vertigo titles) in that same olden ways mold of look pretty but will gently caress you over any chance they get, even for as simple of a reason as you mispronouncing a word, because they're all assholes. Also nthing Lords and Ladies. My favorite scene is the one with the Royal Falconer.
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Feb 4, 2018 18:40
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I think my favourite aspect of the Discworld is that there are people who ocassionally function as scientists because they know how the Disc works and how to exploit it - the main thing being that it is described by Pratchett as running on Narrativium, an element that defines what is needed for the best stories and ensures that they play out, and some characters understand that- for example the Watch (this paragraph describes part of the plot of Night Watch) understand that impossible things are easy to make happen if you remember that 1 in a million chances happen in the Disc 9 times out of 10 - those are the figures. So in one book when a member of them needs to make a difficult shot that has a 1-in-a-hundred chance of hitting the required target they tie a hand behind his back, make him face the other way, blindfold him and generally engineer the situation to be precisely a 1-in-a-Million shot to make sure the Disc lets it happen. You also have Esmerelda "Granny" Weatherwax, who understands the importance of a good story and knows the best way to ensure that they unfurl. Also she knows that people don't do as they are told, so instead of instructing them she uses "headology" to make them think it was their idea all along. It also helps that she is terrifying.(this paragraph describes part of the plot of Witches Abroad) She is a Wicked Witch who was forced into the role of good samaritan by the necessity of narrative (in every pair of sisters there must be a Good one and an Evil one. In the Weatherwax household Granny Esme was supposed to be a wicked witch in counterpoint to her Fairy Godmother sister, but her sister went crazy as explored in Witches Abroad, and she had to become the Good sister.) There are so many great twists on the ideas of fate and deconstructions of narrative convention that it's always a fun read.
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Feb 4, 2018 18:46
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The puns are also really good.
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Feb 4, 2018 18:49
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Prachett is one of my favorite authors of all time and rereading his books for me is like putting on a favorite pair of jeans after not wearing them in months.
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Feb 4, 2018 19:24
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SUPERMAN'S GAL PAL posted:Not the show but there’s an FMV game that stars the actor who played the Klingon leader and several others who I assume were probably background characters at the time. It’s meant to be a holodeck program that teaches humans about Klingon culture and “you” are coming-of-age and have to solve a murder mystery while retaining your family’s honor. It holds up a bit better than I expected but still has some hilariously unfair game overs, but mainly I feel it presents Klingons as the analog to dwarves with all the drinking and singing (there is Klingon opera). Star Trek: Klingon. That game owned, minus the terribly unfair bomb sequence part.
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Feb 4, 2018 19:32
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Wrong thread.
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Feb 4, 2018 19:41
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Still, that was a guy that wasn't aging well.
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Feb 4, 2018 19:45
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BioEnchanted posted:for example the Watch (this paragraph describes part of the plot of Night Watch) understand that impossible things are easy to make happen if you remember that 1 in a million chances happen in the Disc 9 times out of 10 - those are the figures. So in one book when a member of them needs to make a difficult shot that has a 1-in-a-hundred chance of hitting the required target they tie a hand behind his back, make him face the other way, blindfold him and generally engineer the situation to be precisely a 1-in-a-Million shot to make sure the Disc lets it happen. 
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Feb 4, 2018 19:46
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It's been years since I read any of them, forgot which came first.
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Feb 4, 2018 19:47
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Lonely Virgil posted:Wrong thread. how the gently caress can you tell
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Feb 4, 2018 20:19
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Pratchett was a terrible and unfunny writer. I read an embarrassing amount of his dumb stuff to try and fit in in college, but the king is completely naked.
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Feb 4, 2018 20:50
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BioEnchanted posted:I think my favourite aspect of the Discworld is that there are people who ocassionally function as scientists because they know how the Disc works and how to exploit it - the main thing being that it is described by Pratchett as running on Narrativium, an element that defines what is needed for the best stories and ensures that they play out, and some characters understand that- And then it turns out that despite their preparations it wasn't quite a million to one odds, and the shot fails & they wind up I believe getting blown off a tall building by a fireball. Luckily, the odds of all of them surviving that completely unharmed are exactly 1 in a million.
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Feb 4, 2018 21:30
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Inescapable Duck posted:Riker loving loves Klingon food, especially when it's still wriggling. That's pretty much every non-human race in Star Trek. The captains are always having to learn some ritual greeting because this week's alien race won't talk to anyone who doesn't understand their ways. No alien race every appears and says "Hi, haven't met you before. Is there anything we should know about your culture so we don't inadvertantly make you think you're going to die in the game our society is obsessed with?"
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Feb 4, 2018 21:44
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Kuiperdolin posted:Pratchett was a terrible and unfunny writer. I read an embarrassing amount of his dumb stuff to try and fit in in college, but the king is completely naked. I'm sorry you felt you couldn't voice your opinion in college. 
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Feb 4, 2018 21:46
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Something interesting also is Death's relationship with the world - he isn't impartial. He loves the denizens of the Disc and is generally friendly when going to pick them up. Still very business like because he is on a schedule and has a lot of people to collect and micromanage, but generally willing to talk the newly dead through what's going on. Hell, him and Weatherwax have a famous scene where they are playing the card game "Cripple Mister Onion" for a wager - if Death wins he takes the soul of a dying girl, if he loses he takes an animal instead and the girl gets an extra shot (something like that, I've forgotten the exact details) - in the end he throws the game, and then asks Weatherwax what she would have done if he'd won. Her response? "Well, I'd of broken yer bloody arm for a start!" I think his attitude is best summed up in the book Hogfather, in which he fills in for the Discworld's Santa analog because someone needs to do his job while he's indisposed. I'll post the version of the scene from the TV special, this is the best clip I could find - skipped the intro in the timestamp - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHTQeIC0nUg&t=18s
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Feb 4, 2018 21:51
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Death isn't a major character of Small Gods but I'm really, really fond of the little after death scenes many characters get when they're offed.
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Feb 4, 2018 22:07
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'Double Dare', a game show from 1974, is on Amazon. Season 1, Episode 1, round 1 is about Errol Flynn. That one had the audience laughing.
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Feb 4, 2018 22:09
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Eh, it's an OK joke. Not great, but passable. The implications that he may have raped a bunch of people, just not this ugly one, are a little troubling. edit: Also I thought Double Dare was that cool Nickelodeon show with Mark Summers. Where they had to like reach into giant noses and dig through fake boogers and stuff.
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Feb 4, 2018 22:15
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TheKennedys posted:Pratchett was ahead of his time with using the "elves only want you to think they're beautiful and good and awesome, the glamour is the whole point, they'll actually eat your face off because they're alien and wicked" approach in Lords and Ladies, and it was a great book for it. BioEnchanted posted:However I also liked Raising Steam, and heard a lot of complaints about that one, so grain of salt. The Bloop posted:Doctor Polaski is great
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Feb 5, 2018 02:20
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Gaelic elves are pretty spooky. When someone dies you are supposed to drench a threshold in blood to prevent the fair folk catching the persons soul and dragging into their hosed up elf world as slave labour. The logic being that even though they love to enslave the souls of the dead they love drinking blood a lot more and can't resist slurping it up giving the soul a hefty head start.
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Feb 5, 2018 02:25
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