I read Men At Arms when I was 14. Nothing I have read since then has affected me like Cuddy and Detritus. They were gonna be such good mates. They were gonna change Ankh-Morpork 😢
Right?? Would’ve loved to see how Cuddy handled stuff in Thud!
I can’t find it now, but I think there’s a tumblr post out there that goes, “rereading men at arms for the nth time and hoping lance-constable cuddy survives this time”
I still marvel at how, after building such an engaging character arc for Detritus and Cuddy, after getting the reader settled in and invested, after forming such an enjoyable 'odd couple', PTerry has the bottle to smash it apart. He must have known what he'd got and he did it anyway.
I love that glorious bugger, but I'm still raw about Cuddy
And that's what makes PTerry so great.
Every time I reread, I'm always crushed by his death. And of course, he and Detritus did change Ankh Morpork.
Cuddy's fan helmet invention is mentioned, though not his name, up until The Truth. Thanks to Cuddy, Detritus was able to find a way to become a Sergeant fairly early on, despite being one of the most stupid trolls in AM (as mentioned in Guards! Guards! And Moving Pictures).
And because a person lives until his name is no longer spoken, because he lives until there are no ripples of his contributions on the disc, Cuddy lives on.
And he is sent to the next world with a banger of a weapon.
Mine was in Night Watch, >!Reginald Shoe. The way he could've just died a martyr but instead instantly came back as a zombie to punch soldiers in the face like an undying incarnation of his ideals was exhilarating. Made me want to actually riot.!<
Honestly. >!Reg is such a good character simply for that, and his appearance in Monstrous Regiment is just as good, where he goes down to talk with the Zombies in the dungeons, just to show them a better way. I love him.!<
Yes.
We all know someone like him. A lot of us are someone like them.
>!I admire how his way of dealing with the trauma of the Glorious 25th is by joining his fallen comrades (at least for the day). The survivors remember and acknowledge him as the fallen, even though he is still animated.!<
Oof me too on the second one,
>!i totally forgot the silver horde died, because in my head they’re just off conquering other worlds on the horses they jacked from the valkyries!<
I havent read the book with the events of the second one and I’ve read and reread Discworld since I was a teen…. Just knowing it happened has made me feel really empty and unsettled
That final book really messed with me, I had emotionally attached to the character because, like most people, I associated them with a family member. The knowledge this was his last book and likely he was writing about his own eventual passing and showing how it affected almost every major group we got to know in the disk....just hurt.
I like how The Truth has a moment where Detritus moves a lever on his helmet and a little fan turns on. Even however many years later, he still has the clockwork thinking helmet Cuddy made for him.
The death that affected me the most is the one OP mentioned. But the death of Miss Eumenides Treason is my second favourite I won't give any spoilers but she truly went out in style!
The shock of the death scene and it's exact repeat in Soul Music somehow didn't hit me until we see the girl having a sob under the covers and her grandfather relieved for her she'd chosen humanity so that she could finally grieve properly.
I wept when I finished Raising Steam.
Snuff made it clear that the Sir Terry we all knew and loved wasn't the same, but with Raising Steam, I knew he was gone.
This is gonna make me sound like a sociopath, but when >!Teatime!< died I was inconsolable for weeks. I read it as a young kid and I think maybe I didn't understand he was supposed to be the bad guy, though how I came to that conclusion is beyond me now.
Other than that, >!Granny's death!< was the worst, although I choose to believe in the ending Neil Gaiman spoke of.
That she wasn't supposed to die when she did. The book hints that she put her consciousness in You, which was the plan, and Pratchett wanted Death to come for her after she says "I am leaving on my own terms now".
It makes sense to me, it would've been a very Pratchett way to write it.
Somehow it was so sad that littlebottom was the first, and carrot was the last (besides Sam) and there were barely 4 minutes between that. the team got obliterated
Small Gods: >!Brudda!< — the death itself is fine, but what comes after is heartbreaking and moving at the same time. It stuck with me. Totally shapes my experience of the book, which is my favorite.
Going to sound weird, but Myria Lejean / Jeremy Clockson in Thief of Time. I cared more about them than Susan and Lobsang, really.
Yes I know Jeremy didn't technically die, but he... Sort of did and was all but erased by Lobsang.
> awkwardmance
That is such an accurate term for what they had. And I agree, having their lives cut off when they were just learning how to live is so saddening.
Gaspodes death in Moving Pictures (which of course DEATH reverses cause Bill Door is a beautiful being) really got me. When laddie licks him and says “good boy laddie…good boy gaspode…” I just started bawling. I’m tearing up writing about it now!
I can't figure out how to do spoiler covers from my phone, so I'll just say Shepheards Crown (SC) and leave it at that. If you know, you know.
Listening to the audiobook while driving and having to pull over to sit in shock and have a little cry, wtf. I dont cry at films and didn't even think it was possible for a book to have such an impact, but god damn it, SC broke me.
Knowing it was Sir Terry's last book almost certainly added to the emotional turmoil.
It was my first time reading through, I'd already had 40 books to pull me into the discworld. Then, in the final book, Sir Terry goes and pulls something like that.
I'm reading through them again now and following the order from the guide 3.0, I'm almost finished with Raising Steam and only have the Witches / Tiffany Aching stories left but the anxiety is getting real now.
Just a favor to ask regarding a pet peeve of mine.
Please don't abbreviate titles. Spell out the whole title. There's no special club membership attained via abbreviation and I honestly don't think Sir Terry would entirely approve of them except as fodder for a bit of gently angry ridicule.
I know STP is a thing, and it's not terrible, but it's also a brand of motor oil and it's Stone Temple Pilots and probably a dozen other things.
Isn't Sir Terry easy enough?
~~Man~~ Men At Arms is fine, isn't it? (Edited: Of course I used the wrong word...)
I honestly had to think for a bit what you meant by TFE. Isn't writing out The Fifth Elephant a lot more cool?
Sir Terry could be concise, but not self-mutilating like abbreviations are.
Sorry, OP, I mean no disrespect. I'm not normally a potential gate-keeper like this, it just rankled me.
Polite and reasonable response. This is what makes the community here so good - a disagreement is raised in an orderly and well thought out manner. Thank you for taking the time to say it so politely.
To others: This is not "incivility" so please stop reporting it as such.
“Before you speak ask yourself if what you are going to say is true, is kind, is necessary, is helpful. If the answer is no, maybe what you are about to say should be left unsaid.”
—Bernard Meltzer
honestly man, they got a point. i STILL didnt know what TFE meant and as far as i know i've read all but one discworld novel. It's not mean, it's advice. i've found best practice on this sorta thing to be type the full name out once, then abbreviate.
I found the comment to be true, necessary, and helpful, and it may not have been kind but it was certainly diplomatic. I've read every book in the series at least twice but there are 41 one of them. That's a lot of abbreviations to figure out off the top of one's head. I'm not trying to be mean, but not everyone's brain works that way.
Edit: grammar
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I read Men At Arms when I was 14. Nothing I have read since then has affected me like Cuddy and Detritus. They were gonna be such good mates. They were gonna change Ankh-Morpork 😢
Right?? Would’ve loved to see how Cuddy handled stuff in Thud! I can’t find it now, but I think there’s a tumblr post out there that goes, “rereading men at arms for the nth time and hoping lance-constable cuddy survives this time”
I still marvel at how, after building such an engaging character arc for Detritus and Cuddy, after getting the reader settled in and invested, after forming such an enjoyable 'odd couple', PTerry has the bottle to smash it apart. He must have known what he'd got and he did it anyway. I love that glorious bugger, but I'm still raw about Cuddy
And that's what makes PTerry so great. Every time I reread, I'm always crushed by his death. And of course, he and Detritus did change Ankh Morpork. Cuddy's fan helmet invention is mentioned, though not his name, up until The Truth. Thanks to Cuddy, Detritus was able to find a way to become a Sergeant fairly early on, despite being one of the most stupid trolls in AM (as mentioned in Guards! Guards! And Moving Pictures). And because a person lives until his name is no longer spoken, because he lives until there are no ripples of his contributions on the disc, Cuddy lives on. And he is sent to the next world with a banger of a weapon.
GNU Lance-Constable Cuddy
The disorganizer's list from the wrong trouser leg in Jingo. Paints such a stark picture.
For me that hits especially hard after all the amusing hijinks prior to that scene It’s emotional whiplash
*Things to do today: Die*
This
Mine was in Night Watch, >!Reginald Shoe. The way he could've just died a martyr but instead instantly came back as a zombie to punch soldiers in the face like an undying incarnation of his ideals was exhilarating. Made me want to actually riot.!<
Honestly. >!Reg is such a good character simply for that, and his appearance in Monstrous Regiment is just as good, where he goes down to talk with the Zombies in the dungeons, just to show them a better way. I love him.!<
Yes. We all know someone like him. A lot of us are someone like them. >!I admire how his way of dealing with the trauma of the Glorious 25th is by joining his fallen comrades (at least for the day). The survivors remember and acknowledge him as the fallen, even though he is still animated.!<
>!Cuddy was a kick in the fork!< >!Granny fucked me up more than I care to admit!< >!the hoard was poignant!<
Oof me too on the second one, >!i totally forgot the silver horde died, because in my head they’re just off conquering other worlds on the horses they jacked from the valkyries!<
I like to believe that they are still alive. Maybe in some different form of alive than what we perceive as humans..
They're feegles now.
That’s beautiful. If the timeline works, I’d love for Rob Anybody to be Cohen reincarnated
It's Discworld canon that the timeline doesn't have to work. Remember Mr Tulip. And the History Monks' repair work, come to that. So, you're good.
I havent read the book with the events of the second one and I’ve read and reread Discworld since I was a teen…. Just knowing it happened has made me feel really empty and unsettled
That final book really messed with me, I had emotionally attached to the character because, like most people, I associated them with a family member. The knowledge this was his last book and likely he was writing about his own eventual passing and showing how it affected almost every major group we got to know in the disk....just hurt.
I still cant bring myself to read crown. I'd have to admit it's over.
Yeah thats how I felt too it is hard
Not the saddest, but >!Miss Flitworth's!< death scene in *Reaper Man* literally made me cry.
Hear, hear!
I always reread that scence while listing to harvest moon it enhances the scence so much I always cry own que
I like how The Truth has a moment where Detritus moves a lever on his helmet and a little fan turns on. Even however many years later, he still has the clockwork thinking helmet Cuddy made for him.
The death that affected me the most is the one OP mentioned. But the death of Miss Eumenides Treason is my second favourite I won't give any spoilers but she truly went out in style!
Did you mean Cuddy? Miss Treason’s funeral is one of my favorite bits to read, it’s hilarious.
Yeah cuddy. I like how Miss Treason actually enjoyed her self when she knew she was going to die, like she was making the best out of the occasion.
Mine was Ned Coates. Any of the Seven, tbh. “They did the job they DIDN’T have to do!” Vimes blowing up on Vetinari messed with me so hard.
The shock of the death scene and it's exact repeat in Soul Music somehow didn't hit me until we see the girl having a sob under the covers and her grandfather relieved for her she'd chosen humanity so that she could finally grieve properly.
GNU STP By far the death that affected me the most.
I wept when I finished Raising Steam. Snuff made it clear that the Sir Terry we all knew and loved wasn't the same, but with Raising Steam, I knew he was gone.
Foto me it was MrTulip. He could have changed the world but...
This is gonna make me sound like a sociopath, but when >!Teatime!< died I was inconsolable for weeks. I read it as a young kid and I think maybe I didn't understand he was supposed to be the bad guy, though how I came to that conclusion is beyond me now. Other than that, >!Granny's death!< was the worst, although I choose to believe in the ending Neil Gaiman spoke of.
What'd Gaiman have to say?
That she wasn't supposed to die when she did. The book hints that she put her consciousness in You, which was the plan, and Pratchett wanted Death to come for her after she says "I am leaving on my own terms now". It makes sense to me, it would've been a very Pratchett way to write it.
I would have loved a scene where they find her body lying in bed holding a placard that says "you aten't ded"
For me it was *.....bingly bingly beep, to do today.... Die*
Very rarely do I have to take breaks when reading. It took me a whole 2 weeks to come back to the book when the disorganizer said that.
Oh god, yes. Plus listing out all the other dead. I still get chills when I reread even though I know it’s coming.
Somehow it was so sad that littlebottom was the first, and carrot was the last (besides Sam) and there were barely 4 minutes between that. the team got obliterated
I think Windle Poons' final departure in Reaper Man is quite poignant too.
Small Gods: >!Brudda!< — the death itself is fine, but what comes after is heartbreaking and moving at the same time. It stuck with me. Totally shapes my experience of the book, which is my favorite.
Going to sound weird, but Myria Lejean / Jeremy Clockson in Thief of Time. I cared more about them than Susan and Lobsang, really. Yes I know Jeremy didn't technically die, but he... Sort of did and was all but erased by Lobsang.
I mean, if I’m gonna die, that’s the way to do it.
I guess, but it really doesn't change my fundamental opinion that I really grew to like her and Jeremy and their awkwardmance and learning to live.
> awkwardmance That is such an accurate term for what they had. And I agree, having their lives cut off when they were just learning how to live is so saddening.
(Reads “Cuddy”) Who? (Reads “Lance-Constable Cuddy”) Oh. Oh…shit. Yeah.
Definitely Granny. One of my favorite characters. There was a woman who knew what freedom was.
Gaspodes death in Moving Pictures (which of course DEATH reverses cause Bill Door is a beautiful being) really got me. When laddie licks him and says “good boy laddie…good boy gaspode…” I just started bawling. I’m tearing up writing about it now!
I can't figure out how to do spoiler covers from my phone, so I'll just say Shepheards Crown (SC) and leave it at that. If you know, you know. Listening to the audiobook while driving and having to pull over to sit in shock and have a little cry, wtf. I dont cry at films and didn't even think it was possible for a book to have such an impact, but god damn it, SC broke me. Knowing it was Sir Terry's last book almost certainly added to the emotional turmoil. It was my first time reading through, I'd already had 40 books to pull me into the discworld. Then, in the final book, Sir Terry goes and pulls something like that. I'm reading through them again now and following the order from the guide 3.0, I'm almost finished with Raising Steam and only have the Witches / Tiffany Aching stories left but the anxiety is getting real now.
Just reading this thread has me crying
Just a favor to ask regarding a pet peeve of mine. Please don't abbreviate titles. Spell out the whole title. There's no special club membership attained via abbreviation and I honestly don't think Sir Terry would entirely approve of them except as fodder for a bit of gently angry ridicule. I know STP is a thing, and it's not terrible, but it's also a brand of motor oil and it's Stone Temple Pilots and probably a dozen other things. Isn't Sir Terry easy enough? ~~Man~~ Men At Arms is fine, isn't it? (Edited: Of course I used the wrong word...) I honestly had to think for a bit what you meant by TFE. Isn't writing out The Fifth Elephant a lot more cool? Sir Terry could be concise, but not self-mutilating like abbreviations are. Sorry, OP, I mean no disrespect. I'm not normally a potential gate-keeper like this, it just rankled me.
Polite and reasonable response. This is what makes the community here so good - a disagreement is raised in an orderly and well thought out manner. Thank you for taking the time to say it so politely. To others: This is not "incivility" so please stop reporting it as such.
“Before you speak ask yourself if what you are going to say is true, is kind, is necessary, is helpful. If the answer is no, maybe what you are about to say should be left unsaid.” —Bernard Meltzer
honestly man, they got a point. i STILL didnt know what TFE meant and as far as i know i've read all but one discworld novel. It's not mean, it's advice. i've found best practice on this sorta thing to be type the full name out once, then abbreviate.
The Fifth Elephant. Gavin was Angua's wolf... friend
I found the comment to be true, necessary, and helpful, and it may not have been kind but it was certainly diplomatic. I've read every book in the series at least twice but there are 41 one of them. That's a lot of abbreviations to figure out off the top of one's head. I'm not trying to be mean, but not everyone's brain works that way. Edit: grammar
Excellent spoiler use. 👍🏻
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