#the argument appeared to be that Death's line about 'SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY' was inherently grimdark
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Text
My absolute favourite 'Wow. You missed the point of this so much that I'm actually impressed how much you missed the point by' that I've encountered recently is someone claiming the ending of Hogfather is grimdark.
#discworld#hogfather#terry pratchett#the argument appeared to be that Death's line about 'SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY' was inherently grimdark#which again#tell me you missed the point without explicitly telling me you missed the point#I honestly don't know how you read a book/watch a miniseries with that scene with the Little Match Girl#and go away with the idea of 'this is a story that says nothing matters and justice and mercy are meaningless'#said person then accused people explaining why they were wrong to them of 'gatekeeping' which#if asking that you actually engage with the text you are reading is gatekeeping then that word has truly lost all meaning#like if people were telling them to read another Pratchett book I'd maybe get it#but no they were essentially asking them to read *the rest of the scene*
371 notes
·
View notes
Text
#the argument appeared to be that Death's line about 'SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY' was inherently grimdark
Dear gods.
How on earth does one miss that the meaning of that exchange isn't that "justice and mercy don't exist" and is instead that "justice and mercy are not objective, physical parts of the universe, they are concepts that humans invented and it is very important that humans believe in them because otherwise they can't and won't exist"?
The topic closes with this, for goodness sake!:
NO. YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN’T TRUE. HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME? said Death.
What is even the argument that this is "grimdark" unless you have completely misunderstood? The whole point is that humanity has the power to will these positive concepts into existence! And that humanity has in fact done so and continues to do so on a daily basis! Death is amazed that we have done this! Terry Pratchett was lauding the human species for inventing "truth" and such out of whole cloth!
How did someone get from that to "grimdark"?
My absolute favourite 'Wow. You missed the point of this so much that I'm actually impressed how much you missed the point by' that I've encountered recently is someone claiming the ending of Hogfather is grimdark.
#terry pratchett#discworld#no really where is this argument i would like to see it#i haven't seen a discworld take that weird in a while#the point of it is as far from 'nothing matters' as one can get#pratchett was CONSTANTLY telling the reader that individuals' actions and beliefs DO matter#he was essentially saying 'objectively mercy doesn't exist...so it MATTERS when someone chooses to be merciful'
371 notes
·
View notes