Hi All, thought I'd start a thread here with regards to what discworld character's death was the first to truly touch you in some way? I suggest we mention the book first and then "spoiler" the comment, because we will all be different, having read the books in differend orders? I wont write any comment yet incase forum members / moderators dont agree with the idea. Tony? What say you, would this thread be acceptible?
Re: Who was the 1st discworld character who's death touched
I don't think there's a need to say spoiler in a message--the whole thread is going to be filled with spoilers in any case.
Per the topic, I'd say the death of Miss Flitworth in Reaper Man is very touching, even though her death had been delayed by Death's "retirement."
I also found the death-by-chocolate of Myria LeJean in Thief of Time a bit sad, even though she was an auditor, albeit one who had become "humanized."
But probably the most "heartfelt" death was the off-screen death of Susan's parents, which occurred before Soul Music began, although it is re-enacted (through memory) in the novel itself. I suppose it needed to happen, since without these deaths Susan would never have been "adopted" by Death and become the "magical" person she is.
Re: Who was the 1st discworld character who's death touched
Cheers Tony, thought I'd better ask approval first
Raisindot, I just thought we'd better "spoiler" things for people who want to read the thread and look for books they have read, for any similarities in the way they felt. I haven't read Reaper man or thief of time for example, but I know who dies in them now!
Anywho, that aside, I've just finished reading Men at arms, Im reading through the City watch lot at the moment, :-
, and I was absolutely devastated when Cuddy Died I was wondering why I hadn't heared of him in other books, but I loved the way him and Detritus had started to bond, after such a rocky start (no pun intended!) to their careers together in the watch. I bet they would have ended up great friends, like Colon and Nobby. Out of the 13 Discworld books I've now read, I can honestly say that Cuddy's death upset me the most, to date. He had a great personality to him
Re: Who was the 1st discworld character who's death touched
raisindot said:
I
But probably the most "heartfelt" death was the off-screen death of Susan's parents, which occurred before Soul Music began, although it is re-enacted (through memory) in the novel itself. I suppose it needed to happen, since without these deaths Susan would never have been "adopted" by Death and become the "magical" person she is.
Re: Who was the 1st discworld character who's death touched
Discworldpadawan said:
Cheers Tony, thought I'd better ask approval first
Raisindot, I just thought we'd better "spoiler" things for people who want to read the thread and look for books they have read, for any similarities in the way they felt. I haven't read Reaper man or thief of time for example, but I know who dies in them now!
Anywho, that aside, I've just finished reading Men at arms, Im reading through the City watch lot at the moment, :-
, and I was absolutely devastated when Cuddy Died I was wondering why I hadn't heared of him in other books, but I loved the way him and Detritus had started to bond, after such a rocky start (no pun intended!) to their careers together in the watch. I bet they would have ended up great friends, like Colon and Nobby. Out of the 13 Discworld books I've now read, I can honestly say that Cuddy's death upset me the most, to date. He had a great personality to him
I agree about the spoilers (bad Rasindot!), though, it's a shame that you've created a topic that is hard to feedback on others' thought if they are on books that you haven't read yet.
And to your spoiler, wow, I felt exactly the same when I read it, it really hit me, although I read them all in order, so maybe not in quite the same way...
Re: Who was the 1st discworld character who's death touched
DaveC said:
I agree about the spoilers (bad Rasindot!), though, it's a shame that you've created a topic that is hard to feedback on others' thought if they are on books that you haven't read yet. quote]
Merely incentive for people to read more Discworld Books Dave! You said you read them in order, did you mean right from the colour of magic, upto the present, in the order they were actually written? If so, sounds fab! Still see nothing wrong with reading them hap-hazardly though, like myself As sir terry said himself, they are all written in view that anyone can pick any of the books up for the first time, read it independently of the others, and still get enjoyment out of it
Going back to Men at arms :
I had a great chuckle at what, for me to date at least, has been Death's shortest and most to-the-point appearance :-
Death - BIG FIDO?
Big Fido - Yes?
Death - HEEL!
Considering Big Fido was talked up to be so hard as nails and tough thruought the book, it made Death's simplistic take-down of him when he met his demise all the more hilarious
Re: Who was the 1st discworld character who's death touched
Discworldpadawan about Men at Arms said:
, and I was absolutely devastated when Cuddy Died I was wondering why I hadn't heared of him in other books, but I loved the way him and Detritus had started to bond, after such a rocky start (no pun intended!) to their careers together in the watch. I bet they would have ended up great friends, like Colon and Nobby. Out of the 13 Discworld books I've now read, I can honestly say that Cuddy's death upset me the most, to date. He had a great personality to him
I mean ... the death of Myria/Unitiy in Thief of Time made me sad (it felt so unnecessary), the death of the footmen and also the poor little wolf (who half thinks he is human half thinks he is wolf) in Witches Abroad, too. This has been death which I felt not good about ... but Cuddy ... this was, for the first time, so really touching that I felt a bad feeling in the stomach.
Perhaps because he was one of the main characters of the book, his relationship with Detritus such great stuff!
Until the very end I quietly still hoped he nevertheless would have been survived somehow ... (against all evidence).
Re: Who was the 1st discworld character who's death touched
Discworldpadawan said:
DaveC said:
I agree about the spoilers (bad Rasindot!), though, it's a shame that you've created a topic that is hard to feedback on others' thought if they are on books that you haven't read yet. quote]
I would say that as the topic creator, Discworldpadawan, if you're worried about "spoiler exposure," it is your responsibility to put "Huge Spoilers" in the title of the thread as a warning, but once done you can't possibly expect people not to post the way they want to.
In any case, it's pretty much a given around this part of the forum that if you go into any discussion of any book you're going to run across spoilers of some kind of the other. And in a thread like yours, it's absolutely certain that spoilers will be there. If you don't want to be spoiled, don't read the thread.
Re: Who was the 1st discworld character who's death touched
Got a point, yes.
I just have read my last posting again ... spoiler ... one single sentence ... spoiler ... errr ...
Yes, I think we could be a little bit fewer strict in this thread (perhaps spoiler warning in the title although actually it should be rather obvious that you get spoiled about death of people in discworld books).
Nevertheless I am still reluctant to spoil too much about the contents of any book (even if spoilers are allowed).
One death I yesterday night read about in Guards! Guards! also felt rather cruel to me, on the same level as in Wichtes Abroad the death of the footmen: The death of the guy with the three daughters.
He isn't even named but it shows very drastically what it means to have a mighty (dragon) king around.
Re: Who was the 1st discworld character who's death touched
I agree with you. The “Men at arms” death was a shame! But you know what? I'm a very, VERY emotional person when it comes to this (I can spend an entire day crying because of a sad ending) but with Pratchett books I've never felt that way. Maybe it's how he talks about it, with the hilarious entry on stage of Death, that even a death makes you smile, or the lack of very important character's death. Or if in the event that it happens, he'll make it in a so gentle way that it'll make you smile anyway.
I don't know, its just my opinion, but with Pratchett I've never needed handkerchiefs handy. Well yes, but to wipe my tears of laughter
Re: Who was the 1st discworld character who's death touched
Mixa said:
I agree with you. The “Men at arms” death was a shame! But you know what? I'm a very, VERY emotional person when it comes to this (I can spend an entire day crying because of a sad ending) but with Pratchett books I've never felt that way. Maybe it's how he talks about it, with the hilarious entry on stage of Death, that even a death makes you smile, or the lack of very important character's death. Or if in the event that it happens, he'll make it in a so gentle way that it'll make you smile anyway.
I don't know, its just my opinion, but with Pratchett I've never needed handkerchiefs handy. Well yes, but to wipe my tears of laughter
This is a good point, I think when people die discworld-style and Death appears, the occasion is usually more comical than sad! Probably because the newly-deceased just start complaining or argueing with Death that its most inconvienient to be dying right now Add this to Death trying to be more Human, and even attempting Humor sometimes, and sad how a death can sometimes be, the sadness dosent last long when Discworld Death appears
Re: Who was the 1st discworld character who's death touched
Yes, I can agree, Mixa, I know this feelings myself.
But I think it isn't only the joke, or actually every time a joke involved. Even if there is no joke it is rather consoling to see a character you liked, who you have learned to love (Cuddy for example, again), who just have passed away nevertheless still has somewhere to go on, albeit perhaps not in this world.
(Spoiler ahead referring to Reaper Man and The Truth.)
So in Reaper Man I wasn't exactly "sad" about Ms Flickworth' death - I was smiling as she get reunited with her groom.
And even in The Truth I did the same about the second life a now-wood-worm got (and also had to laugh about the joke).
Therefore while reading Pratchett I normally don't get a feeling to cry, although concerning Cuddy, yes, it has been very close.
Re: Who was the 1st discworld character who's death touched
I agree with you too, Roland, and overall I think is the way he always transmits death as a completely natural thing. He wants to make people reflect about this “taboo” aspect, about letting go, about accepting it, because just learning to respect death we are able to appreciate life.
Re: Who was the 1st discworld character who's death touched
Well, I read the books in a random order, so I'm interpreting the word "first" as in "the first death I came across since I started reading the series".
In which case, the candidate in my case is
the deaths of the mining dwarves
from Thud!. It's grisly enough, certainly, but the moment when it becomes wrenching is when one of the dwarfs that confronts Vimes - who at this point has plenty of reason to be furious with dwarves - suddenly says this:
"They killed my son," said Ironcrust.
For someone firmly on Vimes' side up to this point, that was a sucker punch.
I was wondering why I hadn't heared of him in other books, but I loved the way him and Detritus had started to bond, after such a rocky start (no pun intended!) to their careers together in the watch. I bet they would have ended up great friends, like Colon and Nobby. Out of the 13 Discworld books I've now read, I can honestly say that Cuddy's death upset me the most, to date. He had a great personality to him 
