#true terry facts

[cryoverkiltmilk]

As I'm updating my resume, the temptation to add "2019 Hugo Award (Winner)" as an achievement is significant. (AO3)

Then again...

Interviewer: (hypothetical) "That's very interesting! May I see your work?"

Me: "You absolutely may NOT."

[manzisme]

Fatal Fury: it's a fighting game about nothing.

[eyrieofsynapses]

good evening, all. it is May the 25th. our lilacs are blooming, just as the ones at the Watch House did. and I am thinking about remembrance of the fallen, and GNU, and the love in commemoration.

y'know, I read Night Watch… oh, maybe a year ago and some months ago. and the lilac symbolism, the remembrance of the Watch, has always struck me with the depth of the emotion of it, the tangibility of it in the flowers. but I wasn't aware that today was the day until I saw commemorative posts, all that gorgeous artwork and more, on my dash.

I was also not aware, until now, that fans commemorated the day not only because of the book reference, but in support of Terry Pratchett and of those with Alzheimer's. which knocked me over a bit because of course, of course the group that would use GNU to honor him would do that. and… I've been thinking about GNU a lot, lately, and this caught me again.

I read Going Postal a bit ago, and reread it recently. both times, the parts about GNU made me tear up. this idea of the names, the memories, the lives of the clacks workers who dedicated themselves to ensuring that people heard each other's voices—all those names spoken again and again and again by that which they poured their souls into, winging along in the air as they could not, an eternal reminder that they were loved—how could that not touch a person's heart?

when I found out that fans online used it to memorialize him, I damn well cried. hell, I still tear up just thinking about it. do you know, there's a code for an HTTP header "X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett" written by Reddit users to put in webpages, where it goes unseen by the average user? and in 2015, when Netcraft took a survey, there were eighty-four thousand websites using it? it's eight years later—how many thousands upon thousands of websites have this now, do you think? how many little cables of light has his name flown along, now? how many times?

that alone is absurdly and unimaginably lovely in its own right, but… there's something else to it. there's something about remembering with the lilac sprigs every year, just as Vimes and those who were there remembered their dead. something about how, when we take up our lilac sprigs, we carry a little piece of the characters in our hearts, too. I kept trying to put my finger on why that makes me tear up the way it does. the conclusion I came to is this:

what greater way to honor a writer is there, but to honor them the way they did the characters they poured their heart and soul into? what better way to say we know you and you are not forgotten and your work and words and gifts to the world are held in our hearts forever than to remember them by their own words, their own vision? how else could we say you embodied all the good you believed in and wished to see in the world, but to memorialize them after the little pieces of their soul they wrapped in ink and put upon the page?

it is a knowing of the writer, to remember them in their way. it is not a worn-out faceless platitude, but a reminder that their work has been read and will continue to be, that the characters and world they loved enough to bring to life last just as their name does. such remembrance is warm and loving and delights in their memory even as it grieves.

and now Pratchett's name has been written in his tradition, over and over and over, across the vast plane of the Internet, where it will—with any luck—continue to fly for generations to come.

there is no way to truly express the beauty of that… but perhaps we can catch a glimpse of it in the lilacs, both ours and the Watch's.

[diningwiththeasquiths]

Students warn Daniel there is a deepfake circulating of a younger version of him doing all these obscene things. Turns out it's actual footage Silver took of the two of them, back in the day. He leaked it online as payback for Daniel beating him and getting him arrested.

[sassysnowperson]

How Not to Read Terry Pratchett's Discworld Novels

With the very exciting fantasy books poll bracket going on Discworld and how to read it is in the zeitgeist again. I figured I would take a crack at adding to this important topic with a guide drawn from my own chaotic mess of a reading journey:

Learn that Terry Pratchett is a fantasy author that several people whose reading taste you admire enjoy. He apparently blends comedy, good plotting, and a world that is both grounded and satirical and you're a big fan of all those things.

Fabulous! Decide to read some of his work.

Go to your local library. Love a good library. You're new to the area, so you're also exploring the library for the first time, too.

You have found Terry Pratchett! Points to you! Pull a book off the shelf at random. It's called The Dark Side of the Sun.

Start reading. Realize that this feels more like sci-fi than fantasy. Sigh in smug superiority about people who get the two confused.

Realize about halfway through that this is not, in fact, a Discworld book.

Nobody warned you the guy wrote other things!

It's still good, tho. Maybe a little rough but this was an older book and the author clearly has potential. Let's try again.

Review his works. The vast majority are Discworld. You are highly unlikely to grab another non-Discworld book. Go back to the Terry Pratchett section of the library.

Oh hey he wrote a book with Neil Gaiman! You've hears of that guy!

Grab Good Omens off the shelf.

Take it home, realize, much sooner, that this is also not a Discworld book. Still enjoy yourself thoroughly. You should read more of this Gaiman dude, too.

But okay. For real this time. Go back to the library and don't leave without *CONFIRMING* you have a Discworld book this time.

Grab a book. Look at the cover. Read the back Discworld! Ha HA! You've done it!

It's called Thud.

You are utterly gripped by a story of a man wrestling with himself, his growing child, the political tensions of a city and extremism that echoes reality beautifully while still being entirely true to itself. It's a story of responsibility and love and building communities and Fantasy Chess. You are driven nearly to tears by the sentence *WHERE IS MY COW?*

You emerge from the book fundamentally changed as a person, and finally understanding what all the fuss is about. You are now a Terry Pratchett reader for life.

You realize Thud was in the middle of a series. That was a part of another series. That explains why there was a feeling that you were supposed to know some of these people already.

You finally find one of those flowcharts and figure out a more sensible reading order.

I always sort of laugh when people ask where to start reading Discworld, because Thud would be first on absolutely nobody's sensible Terry Pratchett reading order. I'm still tempted to recommend it though!

(My actual advice: Going Postal if you love con men being stuck doing the right thing, Wee Free Men if you like YA and smart angry girls owning their own power, Guards! Guards! *and* Men at Arms if you like crime shows with heart and are okay giving earlier work a try (the quality gets better and better, but I think it needs at least two books to get you into it), and Monstrous Regiment if you like gender and queer feelings, anti-war books told in the middle of a war, and/or would prefer a stand alone novel...and, you know, Thud if you want a great read and don't mind some chaos.)

[under-your-floorboards]

Will Solace and Nico di Angelo having a ghosts youtube channel together like Watchers (Shayne and Ryan but gay) with Lou Ellen being their true crime collaborator.

~

Will : I can’t even begin to describe how gnarly this cause of death was … it is, very gruesome stuff.

Nico : please never say gnarly when referring to the dead ever again

Will : that does sound disrespectful, doesn’t it? No offense to the no longer living!

Nico : Yes, no offense to our dead audience members out there.

Will : do you really think ghosts are watching our youtube series?

Nico : they might do it just for kicks.

Will : *wheezes* like, “Look at these assholes trying to prove our existence.”

Nico : yeah. or “Terry, come take a look at this! They caught your cameo in the last upload!”

Will : *laughing hysterically*

Nico : what a couple of cards we must make to them.

Will : undoubtedly. Should we add that to our intro? “Welcome back to Halfblood Horrors, guys girls and ghouls”

Nico : oh, I like that.

~

Will, after hearing a loud bang that scared him so bad his country accent comes out : WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!

Nico : that was me.

Will : Gods damnit, Neeks, are you tryin’ to give me a heart attack?

Nico, snickering : you jumped like a startled cat.

Will : I’ll get you back for that. We’ll see how you like it.

( He does not, in fact, get him back for that )

~

Will : Welcome back to the channel our good friend over from Witch Crime is Which, Lou Ellen!

Lou Ellen : hello Halfblood Horrors fans. And hello dweeb and Nico.

Will : Wait — Why am I dweeb? I’m your best friend!

Lou Ellen : Nico’s earned my respect. I’ve seen you cry on the ground over rewrite the stars.

Nico : *snorts* always a pleasure to have you in the office, Lou.

Will : This is harassment and defamation, you’ll be seeing my lawyers very soon.

Nico : We’re already off topic —

[weaselle]

you know something i love about Terry Pratchett's trolls?

yes they are written very very dumb, for laughs, for instance most trolls can only count as high as "lots" (which is four. Troll counting goes: one, two, many, lots) and we all get a good giggle out of the stupid way they think and talk...

but because of the way he wrote his troll lore, under the right circumstances, trolls are actually far more intelligent than almost anybody else.

And there's something about the way, idk, it's just... i act stupid a lot of the time. Because i get lost in my head and distracted by ten thousand things, and given more than a split second to consider things i'll overthink and second guess my second guesses... but i know that i'm quite smart really.

And there are plenty of people who even more acutely experience some version of being treated like they are dumb while being, in fact, very intelligent if their particular needs are met.

and i just love that these trolls, often the butt of the joke and by far the most comically stupid of Terry Pratchett's fantasy races... when in the circumstances they are made for... turn out to be geniuses. There is something so poetic and cosmically Just, to have that be true. To have them actually be the most intelligent out of everybody if only you put them in the right environment.

[denileisariver]

warnings: dick analysis!, explicit detail on male genitalia, multiple versions of batman ♡, the dark knight, batman: the long halloween, batman beyond, batman: arkham origins, batman: the enemy within, batman: wayne family adventures.

a/n: no, i'm not talking about terry.

THE DARK KNIGHT

since he has a well known reputation of being a whore, i'd imagine it's for a good reason. he knows how to make great use of his cock, with a cut length of 6.5 inches. he's surprisingly pretty veiny too, thick ones that pop out from his pubic bone and lead towards his base that feed his cock. the color of his dick doesn't change entirely too much, staying around #edc8ab, but the tip becomes a soft red when he's hard and especially when he's about to cum.

he fucks around pretty often, so i don't think his balls would be the most big and heavy, but he has a decent size. they wouldn't hang very low either. but despite himself, they're actually sensitive, and he'd become a mess if they received attention. he doesn't cum in super large amounts, but would shoot his load in long thick ropes. his seed is a very pigmented white.

he's very well kempt, maybe doesn't shave to be completely bald down there, but just so it's tidy and comfortable. but since he has long bouts of depression, i'd imagine that during these times, his pubic hair would grow quite a bit.

BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN

gosh, he has such big dick energy. his cock is 7 inches, and he's definitely mean when he uses it. he's cut and less sensitive, so it might take him some time to get off. despite his size, he isn't the most veiny, but if there was any, they would be smaller and more on his shaft, close to the tip. his tip would be a rounded mushroom shape. he has nice color to him, so even though he's not very pale, his cock can get an almost angry red once his blood is rushing down south. but mostly, his color is around #bda882.

with a huge cock comes huge balls, and this bruce has heavy ones. even though i don't imagine that he has sex very often, his balls still hang on the lower side, much of that because they're so full with cum. since they don't get touched that much, they might be pretty sensitive but not too much, though he might spasm like a virgin if they're attended to when he's close to orgasm. and when he cums, he cums a lot. so much that it makes a huge mess, and if you're not careful, it might leave stains since it's so pigmented.

he could care less to shave himself often. in his mind, there are other things he could waste his time doing, and it's not like he's going to be seen naked too much. but he does care about his appearance quite a bit if he has a partner, so he'd clean himself up a bit, but mostly just out of necessity.

BATMAN BEYOND

oh, old man bruce ♡. even though this version of batman is derived from the animated series and justice league, who i put at 7 inches, unfortunately shrinkage with old age is real, and he's just not the man he used to be. he'd be average, at 6 inches, and it could be joked that he can't get it up anymore, but that's just not true. with his age, he's lost a lot of fat and muscle, the skin sunken in, so suprisingly enough, he'd have veins on him but more so around his pubic bone than on his cock. he's also lost a lot of the color in his skin, growing more pale as he gets older, mostly around #f5ead5. because of this, his cock can get a soft pink hue when he's hard.

his balls aren't very big, though they do hang low. he's spent a lot of his youth fucking to his hearts content, and now he just doesn't have much to give anymore. so with that fact, he doesn't cum a lot either, and it would be opaque as well. he'd reach orgasm much quicker with lost stamina and lack of sex.

he's much too old to worry himself out with shaving often, and it's not like he's fucking anyone anytime soon either, so his pubic hair would grow out up until it got uncomfortable.

BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS

i just know his dick is big. he has monster thighs and a monster cock. he'd be 7.5 inches with a fat girth, every part of him is thick. he's uncut and has a fat head crowned at the top, a long thick vein protruding from his shaft that leads up to his tip. even if he's more on the pale side, he has hyperpigmentation at the base of his cock, but it would fade to an overall color of #f5e5c9 on average. his color doesn't change all that much, even when he cums.

since this is the early years of his time as batman, and he's been traveling the world for many years training, there hasn't been a lot of time for sex according to him. his balls are heavy because they haven't been emptied in so long, so he can cum a decent amount, spurting out in thick globs. i'd imagine he'd cum a bit quicker as well, but his endurance would get better if he fucks regularly.

he focuses too much on work, so he wouldn't prioritize shaving that often, but he does so just enough that his hair is short and easy to manage.

BATMAN: THE ENEMY WITHIN

BATMAN: WAYNE FAMILY ADVENTURES

i imagine him to be pretty average, only 6 inches, but he's so good at using it despite him being pretty shy about it. he's uncut and has little to no veins on his shaft, with a bit of a larger, sensitive head. his cock would be curved slightly to the right, with hyperpigmentation closer to his tip. due to that, any change in color when he cums isn't very noticeable, but despite that, the head still becomes a deep red. the rest of him would be around #f0b884.

his balls would hang a bit more higher, a bit full and plump because of his lack of experience with many partners, but they're not very heavy. he does cum a lot though, a thick seed that can easily overflow and make a large mess. even if he suddenly started to fuck on a regular basis, the amount of cum he has to offer wouldn't change very much anyways.

in spite of his lack of partners, simply for his overall comfortability and preference, he'd keep himself shaven mostly smooth. it'd probably only grow out if he was too busy, and even then i don't imagine it would be very long until he's cutting it off.

hear me out. 8 inches. his kind and caring nature leaves him to be pretty unsuspecting, but he's packing a goddamn weapon in those pants. it's cut and of ample girth and veins, on both the top and underside of his cock. he'd have a pointed mushroom head, a possible deep maroonish color since he has more color in his skin than other versions of batman. the overall color of his length though would be around #dbbf8a. it wouldn't change in color too much, but his tip might darken just slightly when he's getting close to cumming.

breeder balls. no questions asked. he has an army of children, and even though he hasn't fathered them all, he might as well have. they're filled so heavily with cum that he could breed and make a couple of more kids, and he'd be damned if he didn't. he might fuck a decent amount but he cums so much, one would think sex is a rare occurance. and it might be sometimes, since he'd get cockblocked very frequently. regardless, his cum would be a decently pigmented white, and then gradually becoming more translucent as he's finishing.

how much he shaves can honestly depend if he's planning on having sex. typically, he doesn't care to shave other than to keep himself tidy and comfortable, but if he has a partner, he'd prefer to keep his pubic hair mostly to a minimum.

[clonerightsagenda]

I'm loathe to make this comparison because people throw out Discworld as a comp title way more often than warranted (and don't get me started on how every SF debut claims Murderbot as a readalike when it's not deserved) but if I could make the comparison once, I think Greater Boston is the closest I've seen to Discworld. It skins over the real world with a made up* metropolis and then uses that setting and its cast of interconnected characters to make a lot of observations about people and society that range from hilarious to profound and, frequently, both at the same time. One of the show's theses is first presented in a monologue about two Bigfoot hunters seeking the sublime and finding each other.

It posits ridiculous scenarios and then takes them seriously in the worldbuilding. It dredges up bizarre real world facts and spins them into something else until you're constantly looking up which bits of trivia are true. It's relentlessly optimistic about humanity and our capacity to care for each other while also being cleareyed about all the ways we as individuals and a society are currently failing. It's got a guy named Dipshit Poletti. I don't know what Terry Pratchett would have written about Brexit, but Greater Boston's take on the 2016 US election is the best I've seen. America's truest answer to Ankh Morpork right now is a city made out of trains.

I came to this realization while on my commute this afternoon but I now desperately want to see CMOT Dibbler in Red Line.

[anon-sect]

Pic source: Tumblr account @7ef6

Miles, Terry and Will had been roommates for at least several years. One thing they had in common, was that all three were big fans of the Dragonball Z universe and avid players of Xenoverse 2. As all three were highly competitive, they were all trying to prove who was the best at the game.

Terry came up with a bet that the one who loses first in a free for all has to be socks for one of the other two for thirty days. The one who beats both opponents gets to wear the one that lost first. Miles and Will agreed to the conditions as well. Terry only made that the bet, because he played the game a little more than the others and thought he would definitely win.

Terry found himself the first one being defeated while using Majin Buu. Miles and Will paused the game to gloat a little since Terry was the one who made the bet. Terry placed his TF Phone down for one of them to pick up once the winner was decided.

Will end up winning their fatal three-way fight using his favorite character, Vegeta, super Saiyan blue form. Terry wanted to back out initially, but a bet was a bet. He had to see it through despite that he was predicting that he would be using his device on one of them.

Will picked up the device and made the settings. "It's only for a month. I am sure you can survive my feet for that long." He spoke laughing while he flashed it at Terry. Terry vanished and in his place on the couch was a brand-new pair of white socks. He picked up the socks and tried them on his bare feet. "These new socks feel great." He said to Miles, not even acknowledging Terry. Terry was a pair of socks for the next thirty days. There was no need to acknowledge his socks. "He or it really feels that good?" Miles asked. He too decided to not acknowledge the sock's former form. "Yup, I think I will wear my new socks every day. I really want to see if this pair can survive my feet without getting a hole in them for the next thirty days. Normally, I have a hole in my sock after two weeks. Maybe this pair might be different." He laughed as both he and Miles started up another game.

Terry instantly knew his bet was a terrible idea. Will's feet had a slight odor to them, but not horribly bad yet. He was just an object on his roommate's feet. The fact that neither of them acknowledged him made his new existence feel even worse. Yet hearing that his socks has a hole in it after two weeks scared him. If he develops a hole, it would be nearly impossible to transform him back to normal. He would be forever trapped as a pair of socks. He mentally pleaded for Will to turn him back to normal before a hole could even develop, but he was a pair of socks with no voice or even movement. The only motion he would get is by his owner's feet. He just hoped that he would be durable enough to serve the thirty days.

THIRTY DAYS LATER....

Will had put his new socks through so much. He literally wore him every day. He wore his new socks to the gym, and every workout session. He wore him to work and just simply hanging out. He slept with his new socks on. The only time he didn't wear them was to bathe, jerk off in them on occasion or as a cum rag. A tiny hole had developed on the sixteenth day of wearing his socks, but they were his possession for thirty days and he was going to keep true to the bet. When it was finally day 30, he took off his socks. He found Terry's human setting and flashed the socks, but nothing happened. He tried it again, yet still nothing happened. He asked Miles what the problem could be, but he didn't know either. They found the manual in Terry's room. There was a warning. If you become clothing, make sure you don't get torn or ruined or you might be forever trapped as that object. Transforming back to human might be impossible. Looking at the large hole in one of the socks, Will realized that Terry was forever trapped this way. He put the socks back on. He felt slightly sorry for what his feet had done to his former roommate, but he did say that socks usually don't survive his feet unharmed. This seemed to be true for even human transformed socks. He decided he would keep his new socks. If they get torn too bad, he could always keep them as his favorite cum rag.

Terry's mind was completely gone by the end of the 30 days. He tried to hold on, but once the hole started to develop, it started to unravel his mind. He lost all sense of free will in his mind. He was just a dumb sock slave serving his master's feet. His only pleasure was being worn by his master. He even forgets that he was once human. He loved being used and worn by his Master Will, even though his existence was one of pain every time being worn and sometime reek of foul foot odor. As long as his master was fine using him, he loved his life of being just socks.

Will was completely unaware of his feet had done a number to his roommate over the course of the 30 days. HIs feet had completely destroyed his mind and turned his former roommate into a dumb sock slave. Even if he could transform him back, Terry would be down at his feet begging to be close to him. Now his fate was sealed, to forever be owned by his former roommate as just an object on his feet.

[cryoverkiltmilk]

Do you ever watch anime?

...

Yes.

[reveluving]

moments that matter ; bruce wayne x batmom reader

warnings: pure fluff!

a/n: I got nothing to say, I just wanted to give battinson!bruce a try!

check out my batmom m.list!

it's hard for people to believe that he's a married man, let alone a father.

out of everyone in the family, many wonders how bruce had not only proposed to you, but also fathered the former acrobat. at first, they thought its cause the boy lost his parents, just as bruce did. and with dick's more upbeat energy, it's understandable that he likely takes it from you than bruce.

but then, bruce adopts another kid.

and another.

and another.

... and another.

and everyone starts asking themselves if this was all his idea or yours.

oh, if only they knew.

if only they knew your struggle to resist those sad eyes he'd give you.

you just wished the public gave him so much more credit when it comes the kids. you don't think you could even handle the life as a mother without bruce.

and as much as your kids love to joke about bruce's 'teenage phase', one can only imagine the sheer gratefulness they had for him and you.

the perfect balance to this cruel yet sweet world.

it doesn't take long for people to figure out that your children's compassionate side has to come from you, which they weren’t wrong. even bruce himself acknowledged it.

but bruce is anything but heartless, no no. would he even consider taking any of them under his wing if he was? no!

and the idea of fatherhood came easier because you were by his side. so what if he now has eight kids? why would he want to imagine what his life would've been without them?

without the texts from dick, who's all the way in bludhaven, to take breaks?

without jason's interferences when he's outnumbered by a number of gangsters?

without the sounds of tim and damian arguing over the littlest things, only to hilariously end it by shaking hands when you give them 'the eye'?

without attending cass' recital with you, your boys and even alfred, steph, babs and kate as she's the main dancer?

without terry being matt's assistant as the latter tries to treat bruce's so-called ouchies?

without living this life without you?

no. it was impossible to imagine the other bruce wayne.

the bruce wayne he didn't turn out to be.

but hey, speaking of yourself, wanna know a random fact he loves about you?

your style!

whatever your aesthetics may be, he loves you for it! who was he to say otherwise, when he doesn't really take his own into account anyway?

you're in all-black too? that's great! no one's here to judge—not him, not alfred, and certainly not his kids. you're the one able to mix and match like a true professional!

but say your sense of style falls under the bright/pastel/fairycore-like category! gotham's pretty depressing, including the manor itself, so he appreciates it when he's suddenly slapped with a sight of his wife donning her soft pink dress.

bruce finds it endearing that you actually wore the shades he bought for both you and himself. he thought he was being silly at first, wondering if you'd actually wear it, so imagine his surprise when just days after, you decided to match with him when he found the time to take you out to dinner.

he's even more surprised when one day, duke tells him that you've been under the weather because you lost the shades.

instead of waking up to your husband the next day, you find a glasses case on his pillow, complete with a golden ribbon.

he's bought you a new pair, the same kind, but this time, bruce purposely ordered it so that 'mrs wayne' was written next to the frame name.

he comes home, feigning ignorance by raising his brow, though he knew good and well why you were practically blinding him with your smile before you peppered his face with kisses.

˚ · . f i n . · ˚

[kandyzee]

Imagine how mickey felt when Terry walked in on them literally days after he finally kisses Ian.

Mickey has spent ages scared to kiss Ian, to let him in. Not kissing Ian protected him, and he finally gets over that fear after AGES. Then his worst fear comes true days later, Terry finds out.

All that they had been working towards all that fucking emotional growth crushed. His fears are validated in the most horrible and traumatic way.

And he still goes to find Ian. He still kisses him after that. The fact he was able to do that is fucking amazing.

[gingiekittycat]

I miss the narrator

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I miss the narrator from Good Omens season 1.

I will admit, when I first watched the show it threw me a bit. Sure, the narrator's jokes were funny, but I thought that as a story-telling device it was distracting. There was just so much of it all the time, and it often felt out of place. And when I went to look up reviews online, it seemed a lot of people agreed: if there ever was a season 2, the narrator had to go.

But THEN.

THEN.

Then I read the book.

And I realized: the narrator is the footnotes. It's the little jokes in between the plot. In descriptions, in metaphors, in transitions. The narrator is what makes the magic of the novel.

The narrator is the authors.

More specifically, the narrator is Terry.

Terry's influence on the novel, on the story; Terry's influence in the way he and Neil wrote the book. Neil has said before somewhere (I will find the source eventually and add it) that he was writing in Terry's style when he co-wrote the novel. And it shows; to me, when I read Good Omens, I was reading a Terry Pratchett novel. At the time, I had no previous experience with reading Terry's work, and the only novel I'd read of Neil's was American Gods. And in my opinion, Good Omens reads nothing like American Gods.

In subsequently reading more of Terry's work, it became even clearer to me that the narrator in the show was Neil's way of keeping Terry in the story. And maybe it WAS clunky in a visual medium, maybe it WAS distracting, jarring. But it was also hilarious, and whimsical, and playful, and fun. And I don't see how Neil could have done without it and still stayed so true to the novel. The jokes, the metaphors, the descriptions, the footnotes; this is what makes Good Omens what it is.

There was no narrator in season 2.

I will say up front that, overall, I enjoyed season 2. It had so many funny moments, and so many thought-provoking, poignant moments too. It used some dialog from the first book (looking at you Resurrectionists minisode) to remind us why Good Omens is not just a romp between an angel and demon, but also a philosophical, thought-provoking piece of media. It had a lot of Pratchett-esque moments; the Job minisode stood out to me here. The end was, of course, emotional and gutting, but I like emotional and gutting (anyone who has read my fics knows this). But... I found myself missing the narrator. 

I missed Terry.

And maybe that was a good thing. Maybe it was even on purpose. Maybe the lack of narrator really is illustrating the fact that, when Terry died, he left a hole in the world that can never be filled. You can't make the same show you would have made had Terry been alive. You can't even try. You can make your own thing, you can make it amazing in its own right, but you can't make it the same. And, all said and done, I think that's a very important commentary on grief. When you lose something, or someone, you're not the same as you were before; and it hurts, but you change, you adapt, you grow. Eventually, you make something new.

So... do I want there to be a narrator in season 3?

That's a good question. I think I would accept both outcomes. However, knowing that season 3 is supposed to be the sequel Neil and Terry plotted, I think it would be appropriate to have a narrator this time around. True, we have no novel to base it off of; we don't have any of Terry's footnotes, his metaphors, his jokes. But we have Neil, whom Terry influenced while writing the original novel; we have Neil writing in Terry's style, putting himself in Terry's shoes for a moment (his hat, his scarf). We have Neil, who loved Terry, who has in part made this show as a labor of love, because he promised Terry he would, and he's going to keep that promise. We have Neil to remind us why we love Good Omens in the first place.

And I think having a narrator in season 3 would be a wonderful way to illustrate that. 

[yannaryartside]

Shapiro’s angle

I don't think this guy is bad news, or a bad guy per se.

I think he is just an opportunist. And I think he is doing this mostly for himself.

I may be wrong, but for me, the most on-the-nose foreshadowing about Shapiro was Luca telling him:

"Are you getting your sticky fingers on everything again?"

This was right before he asked to talk to Sydney (about the partnership) at Ever's funeral. It was definitely a sign.

Now, it could be a warning about his bad intentions; sticky fingers could be related to wanting to trap someone and never let them go. Maybe Syd should have Pete revise that new partnership agreement.

Mostly, I have a hard time thinking Andrea Terry would have a CDC that was actually toxic or damaging; his true colors would have shown at some point, and she would have known. Maybe that's me being optimistic. Maybe he would show his actual colors when he doesn't have to answer to anybody. Luca hasn't seemed to get awful vibes from him, either.

FINGERPRINTS OF LEGACY

But I associate the sticky fingers comment more with Shapiro wanting to get a "fingerprint" on Sydney. The way a fingerprint may alter the presentation of a fine ceramic plate. Is about marking it as yours, it was in your hands.

Shapiro may think that he has gotten as good as he can get on his own merit, he said he would have stayed with Andrea forever if she hadn't closed Ever, which is a remark on his lack of ambition as a cdc. I think he may be a chef who (also, as he said) is tired of the all-day cooking job, but he still wants to get some glory under his name without all the work. Proteges are a good way to do that.

The only thing about Sydney he knows that could indicate her potential (besides her cooking, which he only tested once) is that she works for Carmen. Carmen has been awarded the best in the world, and the fact that he sees something in Sydney may be enough for Shapiro to bet on her (and a huge bet, considering how much freedom he promised her). Now, what kind of mentor would he be? I would like to think he will try to be Andrea and see where it gets him.

He may have seen the bear's kitchen's obvious lack of functionality and seen it as an opportunity to steal Carmy's best asset from him while she is still unknown by the industry. She could become more expensive to get in the future if she gets a name under Carmen. Shapiro has better chances to get her now. He may even say in the future that he was the only one capable of forming her like a chef while Carmy didn't.

So yeah, he is making a bet on an unknown asset with the hope that it will pay off later since Carmys is not looking. We don't know much about his character besides the fact that at Ever, everyone was cool with him.

I DON'T WANT SYDNEY TO FAIL OR GET SCREWED

Besides how much I care for her—I know it sounds obvious—I don't think it would be a good narrative for the show either way.

Because she has survived Carmy, that has been horrible, but in terms of women in the workplace, at least she doesn't have to worry about being exploited (or other horrible things that we know could happen in these spaces) because Carmy cares about her well-being, the same as the rest of the family.

So, if she hypothetically goes with Shapiro because her voice is being drowned under Carmy's madness, and then Shapiro screws her over, and Carmy has to rescue her.

I am sorry, fuck that.

Because what is the lesson on that? Women should stick around toxic behavior, being grateful that at least they are not taken advantage of? Better the devil you know than the one you don't? Sydney is very capable, and you will punish her for believing in herself?

image by @gingergofastboatsmojito

[petermorwood]

Is the CATS ARE NICE a reference to Terry Pratchett's Death? If yes, you're awesome. If no, you're also awesome because cats are in fact nice.

Yes, it's a Terry reference.

It's also my opinion about F. domesticus, especially since for all the Cats from Hell which get mentioned on-line and TV, the most we ever had with Our Lot was an occasional cat from heck.

Like the time Squeak tried to steal a roast chicken. All of it.

As in leap onto counter, grab convenient part of chicken firmly between teeth, straddle it, put head back and start walking. Just like a leopard with a gazelle or a lion with a zebra, except instead of a trail of blood and innards, there would have been a trail of roast potatoes, cocktail sausages and gravy.

Here's Squeak thinking plotting something.

The in-house joke was that his CV - yodelled at @dduane when he turned up on our doorstep one morning - started with: "I am not very clever, but I can lift heavy things..."

He was, in fact, a surprisingly bright cat who could recognise himself in a mirror and worked out, after a bit of checking, that the news ticker-tape across the bottom of DD's monitor did not in fact come in or out at the sides, never would, and was thus beneath his notice.

I'm not saying he could have pulled off the Great Chicken Robbery, but I'm not saying he couldn't, since he was a Norwegian Forest Cat in his prime of 8 kg / 18lbs.

Squeak was built like a furry rugby player, "...can lift heavy things..." was true and was frequently demonstrated (a favourite toy was a log of firewood).

Unfortunately for Squeak and fortunately for dinner, he lost focus and thieved several sausages first, otherwise he might have got away with it - if it hadn't been for those meddling kids humans, who could count, noticed the gang begging around our ankles was short the largest, loudest member, and reached a correct conclusion.

Steps were taken (quite rapid ones, IIRC) before any real mischief was done, and we even had some more sausages in the fridge to replace the ones in the cat.

Squeak was Not Pleased and sulked for a good while - there was no mistaking it because when he showed you his back, there was a lot of back - but when that didn't have any effect he returned to begging like all the others, and (because we are Big Softies) it paid off.

We miss him.

We miss all of them.

They were very fine cats, very fine cats indeed.