Line #6 Awesome/Hogfather


1	* At the end of the story, Death himself gives one of the most powerful speeches for [[TheAntiNihilist Anti-Nihilism]] in the history of fiction.
2	-->“All right," ''said Susan''. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."
3	-->[[AC: Really? As if it was some kind of pink pill? No. Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.]]
4	-->"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"
5	-->[[AC: Yes. As practice. You have to start out learning to believe the little lies.]]
6	-->"So we can believe the big ones?"''
7	-->[[AC: Yes. Justice. Mercy. Duty. That sort of thing.]]
8	-->"They're not the same at all!"
9	-->[[AC: You think so? Then take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve and then show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. And yet—]] ''Death waved a hand.'' [[AC: And yet you act as if there is some ideal order in the world, as if there is some... some rightness in the universe by which it may be judged.]]
10	-->"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"
11	-->[[AC: My point exactly. You have to believe in things that aren't true. How else will they BECOME?]]
12	* Mr. Teatime is a PsychoForHire Assassin, who maintains a baseline level of awesome that is so high that [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Crowning Moments Of Awesome]] are less likely to show up against the background. It could be argued that his entire ''appearance'' is a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome. Unless he's terror personified. Alternately, he could be both. Especially given his ability to find purchase on thin air and tickle someone with a knife through several layers of clothing. Or [[EyeScream the very surface of their eye through their closed eyelid.]]
13	** The head Assassin calls for him at the start of the book. Then turns around to find him standing at the mantelpiece, ''petting the dogs''. Teatime then scares the crap out of him over the course of the following few minutes. This sets your expectations for the character for the book, and he does ''not'' disappoint.
14	** He kills [[YouMeanXmas Santa Claus (or a reasonable facsimile thereof)]], nearly kills Death (having planned it years ago), pulls a 'not quite dead' after being Deader than Dead, and also has what might be a magic artifact in his ''eye socket''. ''[[GreenRocks Discworld magic.]]''
15	*** Just so you know how awesomely, inconceivably ''insane'' that is, Wikipedia - utterly straight-laced, sometimes TheComicallySerious Wikipedia feels the need to italicize that little fact in their bio of him.
16	* Death gets a small one, when he gets Teatime's name right (it's pronounced Te-ah-ti-meh) Thus ''impressing'' Teatime.
17	* Death ruining Teatime's plan to pop up as a ghost...
18	* In the climax, Death takes Susan on Binky to save the Hogfather, being chased in boar shape by the Auditors, who have become wolves. He says it's AllUpToYou and lets her take the reins. Susan manages to get onto the Hogfather's back, help him make a huge jump, and challenges the wolf-Auditors to try to catch them. She grabs a huge branch and whacks any that dare try.
19	* Death's true [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Crowning Moment Of Awesome]] comes in this book, at the very end, when, finally free from the constraints he had been forced to adhere to until the safety of the Hogfather was assured, he obliterates a huge number of Auditors. What really makes this more interesting is that you never actually see him do it, you simply hear his speech to them and witness the final sequence when he seems to grow larger before them and utter, [[AC:Ho. Ho. Ho.]]
20	* [[AC:Have you been naughty...or nice? HO. HO. HO.]]
21	** The film takes it another level by making it clear just how much Death is ''enjoying'' the moment. [[AC: Yes, there are rules. And you broke them! How dare you? HOW DARE YOU?]] is infused with so much raw anger that you suddenly become ''very'' glad that he's on our side.
22	** Points to the film for taking what should be a nice, cheerful line and making it sound more menacing than almost anything.
23	-->'''IT GETS UNDER YOUR SKIN, LIFE. SPEAKING METAPHORICALLY, OF COURSE. AND YOU SEE, THE MORE YOU STRUGGLE FOR EVERY MOMENT, THE MORE ALIVE YOU STAY. [[PreAssKickingOneLiner THAT'S WHERE I COME IN, AS A MATTER OF FACT.''']]
24	* One of the funniest Moments of Awesome is in the Live-Action Adaptation when the Oh God of Hangovers drinks the condensed glass of pure sobriety that the wizards created. A stirring, epic "divine" theme accompanies his consumption of it, as he IS a god, and his awakening is treated as appropriate for a being that, while silly, ''is'' divine.
25	** The "Divine" theme is "Men of Harlech", or alternately, "The Alcholic's Anthem".
26	* [[AC:Death]] defies narrative tradition by saving the Little Match Girl, [[AC: There's no better present than a future]] indeed. Albert then gets a small one by throwing snowballs at ''angels'' who come to take the girl to heaven.
27	** Seen here in the LiveActionAdaptation [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvwYCbBWxT8 making it even more awesome when Death himself enjoys being able to save people for once...]]
28	** The story goes that Pratchett had always hated the story of The Little Matchstick Girl because of the ending that dying was supposed to be happy. This was his chance to go, "No... THIS is a happy ending!"
29	** In the book, Death also tears down the narrative of Good King Wenceslas, confronting the king as he tries to give a poor beggar his entire feast in a shallow act of charity. After [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech chewing him out]] for only being charitable on Hogswatch because it makes him feel good, Death then ''orders'' the king out and gives the beggar plainer food that he would much rather have.
30	--> [[AC: WERE YOU HERE LAST MONTH? WILL YOU BE HERE NEXT WEEK? NO. BUT TONIGHT YOU WANTED TO FEEL ALL WARM INSIDE. TONIGHT YOU WILL WANT THEM TO SAY: WHAT A GOOD KING HE IS.]]
31	* Death admits he wasn't certain if Susan was going to win and save the Hogfather, but he had confidence in her abilities. She had already proven herself before and is cut from the same cloth as her parents. Despite herself, Susan can't help but be pleased in her grandfather's faith.
32	* It's revealed that ''the'' Tooth Fairy is the first Boogeyman, who had a HeelFaceTurn because she liked seeing children happy and safe. Thus, she became their worst nightmare to give them the courage to face real dangers. During the invasion of the Tooth Fairy palace, she gives up her strength and life to keep Teatime out, save Bilious from being strangled, and protect the children, lasting long enough to bid farewell to Susan.
33	* How Susan defeats Teatime: he's stolen her sword and knows who she is. He even gloats that her grandfather can't save her because Death cannot enter the Tooth Fairy Palace. Then he makes the mistake of trying to stab her with Death's sword. She smirks as it passes through her several times. Susan reminds him of what he said; no one can die in the Tooth Fairy Palace. You can, however, fall ''out'' of it and die. She also has another weapon: her fists. One punch and he goes over the railing. Though he grabs her, Susan lasts long enough for Banjo to pull him up.
34	* Susan sees the Tooth Fairy shapeshifting, admitting she likes spiders and rats and it can't scare her. This wins the Tooth Fairy's respect, and her gratitude for Susan coming to mount a rescue.
35	* The children see Death eating a biscuit by the fire. Twyla just checks on her stocking and bids him a good morning.
36	* Death's reaction to finding Susan walking into the kitchen-- with Teatime at her back, with Deaths' sword in his hand. It's an OhCrap situation that his granddaughter is being held hostage, and Teatime reveals he has a plan to kill Death. Then Death continues eating a biscuit as if he's not worried at all.
37	* When Susan takes the fireplace poker--it's been imbued by the children's belief to defeat any monster, and to only hurt monsters--and throws the poker at her grandfather, the GrimReaper; it passes through him and hits Teatime, the psychotic BigBad. Because, after all, the poker only hurts monsters, and the children can see who the real monster is. And what makes it even more awesome is that she scared the ''crap'' out of grandpa in the process, and she didn't even know for sure if it would work.
38	* And slightly before that, where she encounters the Scissor Man, the nightmarish thing that children are told will cut off their thumb if they suck on it. It's described as looking less like a man and more of an ostrich or lizard made of blades. And she ''[[HorrifyingTheHorror intimidates]]'' it.

Context Awesome / Hogfather