In the third part of\u00c2\u00a0Hogfather<\/i>, I have no idea what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on. LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S DO THIS. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Teatime and Ernie<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a challenge to try to pin down what it is about Teatime that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so insidious and terrifying, but Ernie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s POV section at the opening of part 3 does it for me:<\/p>\n
Ernie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brain felt all twisted. The lad was definitely what Ernie thought of as a toff, and he seemed nice and friendly, but it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t all add up. The tone and the content didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t match.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
THERE IT IS. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s precisely that! As I said in the video, Teatime straddles a line between being genuine and mocking, so much so that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s often impossible to determine exactly what his intent is. That mysterious nature frightens me, and what he does to Ernie is proof that he can use his charm to temporarily distract people, at least long enough to get exactly what he wants from them. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what makes me so sad about Ernie. It was bad enough that Teatime coerced him into giving his group a ride to Unseen University; but for a moment, Ernie truly believed that if he cooperated, he would survive.<\/p>\n
And then Teatime kills him and calls him\u00c2\u00a0dull<\/i>. UGH WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS, TEATIME.<\/p>\n
The Auditors<\/b><\/p>\n
So, I still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get it. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s okay. This is a\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0book! I rarely get what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on until the end. But the Auditors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 hatred of individualism and personality\u00c2\u00a0might<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0be the key to this. But why go after Hogfather??? That makes no sense to me. Aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t there any number of mythological figures that could be the perfect target for them? Is the Hogfather just the start of something. Yet I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also confused by this line:<\/p>\n
Yes\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 but the beauty of this plan, said a third, is that he\u00c2\u00a0can<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0interefere.<\/p>\n
He can go everywhere, said one.<\/p>\n
No, said another. Not quite\u00c2\u00a0everywhere<\/i>.<\/p>\n
And, with ineffable smugness, they faded into the foreground.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So, okay, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s accept this. HOW DOES THE NEXT SCENE MAKE ANY SENSE.<\/p>\n
The Hogfather<\/b><\/p>\n
Initially, I read the scene with the Death of Rats as being one of wonder. The Death of Rats had never actually seen the Hogfather, and now, they were witnessing him for the very first time! And that little groan we may have heard from the Hogfather was a nice touch, suggesting that perhaps the Hogfather was tired of all the traditions surrounding them. Even that moment where they cleaned up after themselves was great, since it could be interpreted as them being deliberately sloppy after all these years.<\/p>\n
But then:<\/p>\n
HERE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S ANOTHER PORK PIE.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Any mustard?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said the sacks. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a treat with mustard.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
IT DOES NOT APPEAR SO.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh, well. Pass it over anyway.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Um. So\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Death, right? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how Death\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dialogue is formatted, so\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Death? But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0not<\/i>? How did Death end up as the Hogfather??? Who is the person in the sack??? Didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Teatime have someone in a sack???<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m lost. And I get that this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t why Susan has the reaction she does to the news that her grandfather might be posing as the Hogfather. No, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s confused because she wants\u00c2\u00a0nothing<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to do with this other life, especially not after her last experience with the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153occult.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Her life, as it currently is, is not all that normal\u00c2\u00a0anyway<\/i>, so I understand completely why she chooses to ignore what the Death of Rats has to say to her. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad the raven is back, though!)<\/p>\n
Pratchett is setting up a lot already, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing that Susan will get pulled into this somehow. But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just utterly lost when it comes to the Hogfather. Who was that??? Why is the Death of Rats so convinced it was Death?<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IRfL7KCY6J8<\/p>\n
Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n
– I am now on Patreon<\/a>! There are various levels of support, from $1 up to whatever you want! You’ll get to read a private blog, extra reviews, and other such rewards.<\/b>
\n– I\u00c2\u00a0will be at numerous conventions in 2016! Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches have been announced here.<\/a>
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the third part of\u00c2\u00a0Hogfather, I have no idea what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on. LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S DO THIS. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[451],"tags":[519,463,248],"class_list":["post-3918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-hogfather","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}