How many trouserlegs of time are there?

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A

Anonymous

Guest
#1
First off, let me apologise for all rants and ravings from my side.
Then, follow me on this thought:

Are actually all stories we know from the Disc set in the same trouserleg of time?
I remember an inteview where the history monks, alternate past etc where mentioned and of course we have events as in Soul Music or Thief of Time.
But in the total, are all these stories set in the same reality or can it be possible that we got to hear stories from at least three seperate legs?
 

Dotsie

Sergeant-at-Arms
Jul 28, 2008
9,069
2,850
#2
I'd say they're all in the same trouserleg. Although occasionally we get a glimpse into another leg, it always ends up back in the right one.

In Nightwatch, I think we get back to the original leg, but it's changed a bit.
 

Tonyblack

Super Moderator
City Watch
Jul 25, 2008
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Cardiff, Wales
#4
The Mad Collector said:
There has been some patching up by the history Monks but we may have 'jumped legs' as well. After all to take just one example Gaspode died at the end of Moving Pictures but is definitely still around now.
He didn't die, although apparently Terry had been going to kill him off. I think the story goes that one of his reader/editors convinced him that killing Gaspode off would be a mistake. ;)
 

Tonyblack

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Jul 25, 2008
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#7
I don't want to go into spoilers too much, but he meets up with Death and then, in true cinematic tradition, gets rescued by Laddie. He does lose his power to speak though and this is later explained in a similar way to Maurice and co. and their eating habits. :laugh:

As to this whole trouser legs question. Terry has never pretended that this is a cultural history of Discworld. It's just a place where he sets his stories. There are problems and things that don't work, but Terry isn't trying to be Tolkien.

So instead of thinking of different trouser legs, try thinking of artistic licence instead. Discworld is Terry's sandbox and he lets us play there sometimes. But he makes the rules.
 

Tonyblack

Super Moderator
City Watch
Jul 25, 2008
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#11
I think I recall Terry once saying something along the lines of - there are no mistakes in the Discworld book, justy alternative realities.

Or something like that. :laugh:
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
#12
I know :laugh: And I wonder, can it be made out how many are there (close to) exactly and which are connected...
 
Apr 2, 2011
124
1,775
Cardiff, Wales
#16
meerkat said:
Is de ja vu just a hint of when you were in another trouser leg?
In L&L, this happened to Esme Weatherwax but only because she was so close to the other universes' Esme's.

As for the original question, there are an INFINITE number of Trousers of Time, but we only see one or two.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
#17
Cool Middle Name said:
meerkat said:
Is de ja vu just a hint of when you were in another trouser leg?
In L&L, this happened to Esme Weatherwax but only because she was so close to the other universes' Esme's.

As for the original question, there are an INFINITE number of Trousers of Time, but we only see one or two.
Mhnn... I rather think we see a few more. Maybe even slip around within a story.
For example (okay, it's rather a wild guess) : Sould Music
We get told instory the events of the book never happened. Yet afterwards everyone still seems to remember the events quite clearly. So, maybe we here can say we slipped from Leg A in which the events happened as they happened to leg B where Buddy never went to AM and then moved into C where Buddy moved to AM, events happened, but Buddy survived in the end but no alteration of time happened.
Then, maybe a harder to spot example, Ponder:
In L&L he's said to be rather chubby (don't have the quote on hand) while in Last Continent the subtext gives it that he's skinny. Granted, LC also tells us he's a great swimmer, but even though he got off his lazyness we where told about in L&L, he didn't go sporty. So how did he loose that much weight, especially with the UU meals around?
(IMHO he's still neatly chubby, just 'cause it's cute :laugh: )
 

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