The Discworld Thread

Going to hold any judgment on the Vetinari casting choice until a trailer comes out.

...Fleet looks like a perfect Ridcully ngl

Female Dibbler stands out the most to me, I think there's some potential in playing around with a gender flipped take on the character especially since there were already a bunch of inexplicable variants in the books anyway.

EDIT: wait hang on Wonse??? I am now even more confused at where this adaptation is being taken.

Edited by Nouct on Nov 19th 2019 at 8:57:11 AM

This seems... intentional?

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

Very surprised by these changes anyway, but they are not necessarily a bad thing.

I really wonder how the Vetinari - Vimes relationship will play out with this change. A female Dibbler can be quite fun.

Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.

I personally don't have too much beef with the decisions but it does have implications beyond the characters' own gender in the case of Vetinari - in that the novel Discworld was still very much a patriarchal one (and given the plotline about the Low King of Dwarfs, this was very much intentional) so assuming that the TV Vetinari is presented as female this automatically makes the TV Ankh Morpork rather more socially advanced than the original... Which I am NOT saying is a bad thing of course but may change the direction somewhat.

"These 'no-nonsense' solutions of yours just don't hold water in a complex world of jet-powered apes and time travel."

Isn't Cheery's actor (er...) nonbinary as well?

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

A specific thing about Vetinari being a lady-type is that it indicates the Assassins' School went co-ed earlier than in the novel timeline.

I note that way back in Guards, Guards Vetinari has a whole speech to that effect. Then we move to Fred and Nobby, who are established throughout the Watch books as an effective barometer of the general populace, wanting to be rewarded for risking their lives fighting a dragon with a five-dollar-a-month raise, a new kettle, and maybe a dartboard. On the Disc, idealism tends to get the last laugh.

Rereading Hogfather because it's December

I always related to Ridcully the hardest whenever that section about holiday sentimentality comes up

That sentence about feeling as if watching a dollhouse getting destroyed, used to describe Ridcully's feelings where he hears all the other wizards complaining about Hogswatch traditions, always comes to my mind whenever I witness people tearing to shreds something I liked.

Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.

Hogfather is mine as of this past Christmas.

I've barely started it and Susan's already fantastic. I'm getting a way better impression of her here than in Thief of Time.

but HOW?

First images of the Watch series.

I'm... conflicted. The setting seems to be verging toward Steampunk, which was what the books were going to, but this seems closer to Punk than Steam (people seem to be using guns), and I'm not entirely sold on Angua (Carrot and Vimes seem good so far, though I'd have thought Vimes was clean-shaved). Then again, Pratchett's books were never about the setting but more about the story and satire, so I'll have to wait and see...

And then there is the fact that the characters relationships seems to have undergone a lot of change, though the fact that Lady Sybil seems to be Batman can be great to watch.

Edited by C105 on Jan 17th 2020 at 11:37:17 AM

Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.

Yeah Angua seems too modern and the aesthetic seems like a mess because it seems like they aimed way too much for grungy. I know they probably don't have the budget that Amazon, Netflix, and HBO pump into their speculative fiction series but still

This shows gives me increasing trepidation as to its quality with each reveal.

I'm not really sold on the aesthetic either. It looks too "normal" I guess. None of the characters really look like they're inhabiting a fantasy world. The clothes look a bit too modern and I'm a little concerned about how much the characters seem to have been changed. I still hope the show is able to capture what I love about the characters and series but this doesn't really fill me with a lot of confidence.

I...kinda like how this looks, tbh. I'm tenuously excited.

(Cross-posting my thoughts from the "Live Action TV" thread, since there seems to be discussion here too.)

I'm... curious, and waiting cautiously to see how it turns out. While I might like a traditional take on Discworld, as long as it has the settings fantastic elements—trolls, werewolves, etc. in particular—I'm not against a more-modern setting. And the shots on that page look appropriately gritty and odd for a take on Ankh-Morpork, I feel.

My Games & Writing

This is clearly not going to be a conventional adaptation, it's doing something different with it. Whether that something different actually works remains to be seen but I have hope, if not particularly high expectations.

"These 'no-nonsense' solutions of yours just don't hold water in a complex world of jet-powered apes and time travel."

I saw an interesting theory on twitter. Given the casting they'll probably replace Keel with Carcer rather than Vimes.

You can only write so much in your forum signature. It's not fair that I want to write a piece of writing yet it will cut me off in the mid

Oooh that would be interesting...

Having only just now read Maskerade, I am somewhat disappointed nobody asked the Opera Ghost the 'house on fire' question. I guess I was curious to see if the answer would've been different or the same.

That said, I enjoyed the book a lot, and Walter is absolutely precious.

Everybody's all "Jerry's old and feeble" till they see him run down a skyscraper and hijack a helicopter mid-flight.

New film adaptations of the Discworld novels incoming.

And that has nothing to do with Narrativia being disappointed by the Watch adaptation.

Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.

Yeah, I was pretty let down by how The Watch seems to be turning out too.

Everybody's all "Jerry's old and feeble" till they see him run down a skyscraper and hijack a helicopter mid-flight.

Seems like The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents will get an animated adaptation. And that one seems fully supported by the Pratchett estate.

Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.

Not sure about Hugh Laurie as Maurice, good actor no doubt but doesn't quite fit the character as I envision (enlisten?) him. But the apparent approval from relevant parties bodes well. Good Omens and Hogfather are the only really good adaptations so far for me.

"These 'no-nonsense' solutions of yours just don't hold water in a complex world of jet-powered apes and time travel."

Just finished The Last Hero. I did not expect to be as affected by it, but that ending sucker punched me in the feelings.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

Pratchett was a master of Mood Whiplash. Very few other authors get me swinging between tears of laughter and actual tears as often.

Thud! Was a VERY different read when I had a son of my own for example.

"These 'no-nonsense' solutions of yours just don't hold water in a complex world of jet-powered apes and time travel."

I have been in the process of rereading all my Discworld books. So far Night Watch and Monster Regiment stand out as the darkest of them all (which does not mean I don't like them, on the contrary). Monster Regiment in particular does not pull any punches on War Is Hell, and anything that could have been played for laughs before is shown in its unadulterated horror. The contrast with, say, Interesting Times (where rape was used as a joke with an impotent geriatric barbarian and people getting dismembered by the Silver Horde was made awesome) is impressive.

Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.